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MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING. 

Numbers still in Print. 

VOL. I.— Parts i to 8. Price 6d, each. (Nos. 
2 and 3 are a double part) Complete 
volume. Price 55. 

VOL. II.— Parts i. 4, 5, 6. 7, 8. Price 6d. each. 

VOL. III.— Parts 1, 2, 4, 6, 7. 8. Price 6d. each. 

VOL. IV.— Parts i to 8. Priu 6d. each. 



A. AND C. BLACK, 4, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W. 



Modern Language Teaching appears eight times 
yearly, viz., on the ist of February, March, April. 
June and July, and the Z5th of October, November 
and December. The price of single numbers is 6d. ; 
the annual subscription is 4s. The Journal is sent 
free to all Members of the Modem Language Associa- 
tion who have paid their subscription for the current 
year. Applications for membership should be 
addressed to the Hon. Secretary, Mr. G. F. Bridge. 
45, South Hill Park. London, N.W. ; and subscrip- 
tions to the Hon. Treasurer, Mr. R. H. AUpress. 
City of London School, Victoria Embankment. 
London, E.C. 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 



THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN LANGUAGE 

ASSOCIATION 



BDITBD BY 

WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH THS ASSISTANCS OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE AND 
A, A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. 



LONDON 
ADAM AND CHARLES : BLACK 

1908 



61 S 95^> 



A'^T'^ 



■ .A- /-.S. 

1 L 



CONTENTS 



ARTI0LB8 ^ 

Adenoids and Modem Language 

Teaching. H. Hagelin - 16, 88 
Board of Edncation and Modern Lan- 
guages, The 188 

Board of Education : Regulations for 

Secondary Schools • - - 118 
Board of Education : Report for 1 907 59 
Discussion Column : TheBest Method 
of Public Examination and Inspec- 
tion • - • - - . 68 
i. W. 0. Brigstocke- - 86 
ii. H. L. Hutton . . . gg 
ilL O. W. Samson - - - 99 
iv. H. W. Atkinson - - 101 
V. G. F. Bridge- - - 107 
yi. H. S. Beresford Webb - - 109 
▼iL N. L. Frmzer - • • 146 
▼iiL 0. H. S. WiUson - - 147 
iz. A. T. Pollard - 149 
z. E. G. Kittson - 168 
XL J. G. Anderson - - 166 
xiL W. Rippmann - • 168 
ziii F. B. Kirkman -171 



Experiment in Method, An. 

KirlrrriRTi 



F. B. 



French Lessons at an Early Age. 
Miss E. C. Stent • 

French Pictures, Lantern Slides, and 
Songs, Some. Bessie H. A. Robson 

French Plays and Songs in Schools. 
Miss Puraie 

French Women Novelists of the 
Early Nineteenth Century. Amy 
Sayle 

German in English Scliools, The Posi- 
tion of. E. L Milner-Barry, H. W. 
Eve, K. Breul, G. 0. Moore-Smith, 
H. W. Atkinson, W. Rippmann, 
Miss Lowe, Miss Purdie 

German in Public Secondary Schools, 
The Study of . - - - 

German Plays at the Royalty 
Theatre. H. G. A. - 

German Scientific Society, Oxford - 

Holiday Oourse Bursaries 

Holiday Courses .... 
Be8an9on 



201 

244 

204 

81 



206 



68 
- 196 



119 
212 
180 
91 
188 

Edinburgh 267 

Honfieur .... 91, 181 
London ... 31, 92, 192 
Neuwied • - • - 91, 188 

Santander 91 

St Servan 186 

Teaohszs' Guild Courses - 248 

ToQit 91, 181 



PAOt 

India, Modem Language Methods in. 

J. D. Anderson - - - - 283 
Institut Fraufais pour Mitrangers k 

Paris 218 

International Exchange of Chil- 
dren 180 

Literary Appreciation, The Use of 
Modem Methods of Teaching 
French and German with a View 
to Training in. Miss Purdie - 186 
Looking Forward - - - 181 

liaison Universitairo de St Valery-s. - 
Somme et les Caravanee Scolaires, 

U 92 

Modem (Foreign) Language Instrac- 
tion in Secondary Schools, Report 
on the Conditions of - - 33, 66 
Modem Language Association : 
Annual Meetmg, 1907 - • - 1 
Annual Meeting, 1908 - - - 247 
Meetings of Committees 

26, 60, 90, 117, 166, 175, 214, 246 

New Conditions of Membership - 175 

Travelling Exhibition - - 91, 118 

Travelling Exhibition, Conferences 

at— 

Birmingham .... 167 

Ipswich 247 

Leeds 167 

Sheffield 156 

Modem Language Study in Scotland 198 
Modem Language Teacher's Refer- 
ence Library : History and Geo- 
graphy, Life and Ways - - 116 
Grammar, Idioms, Quotations, 
etc, Phonetics- - - • 161 
Neuphilologentag at Hanover, The. 

KG. Fiedler .... 177 
Next Step, The. E. C. Kittson - 84 
Scholars' International Correspond- 
ence, The - - - - 93, 249 
Simplified Spelling, On. W. Areher 

and W. W. Skeat - - - 227 
Sooi^t^ Acad^mique, La - - 89, 261 
Straying : A Confession. K. • - 112 
Translation, A Teacher of Classics on 160 
Translation in the Teaching of 
Modem Languages, The Plai^ of. 
F. B. Kirkman, 0. Siepmann, W. 
Rippmann, W. H. Hodges, L. von 
Glenn, Miss Shoarson, Miss Mat- 
thews, Lord Fitzmaurice • - 44 
Translation, The Art of. F. Storr - 8 
Vocabulary, Methods of Extending 
the Modem Language Leamer's. 
W. Rippmann - - - 286 



VI 



CONTENTS 



West Riding, Modem Language Work 

in the. Miss 0. W. Matthews • 19 
Words or Pictures. J. Welton 14 

Examinations 

Central Welsh Board - 211, 245 

Oxford and Oambri(^e Joint Board, 
Lower Certificate - - - - 111 

Oxford and Cambridge Schools 
Examination Board, Higher Certi- 
ficate 174 

Annual Examination in German, 
conducted by the Sprachverein - 188 

Bkyikwb 
Alnianach (Hachette) 68, 252 

Aynard, J. Im Fie d'un Poite, 

Coleridge 190 

Bacon. Bssays, Ed. Mary A. Scott 119 
Ball, F. |G. A Oerman Orammar 

for SehooU and CfolUffes - 253 

Balzac, Un Episode sous la Terreur, 

Ed. C. F. Shearson - - - 258 
Barbier. lambes et Pohnes, Ed. 

Oarnier 222 

Beresford, L. P. The Student* s Ele- 

merUary Textbook of Esperanto - 225 
Bolland, H. Excursions en France - 252 
Browning. Strafford. Ed. H. 

George 220 

Canihrviffe History of English Litera- 
ture, Ed. A. W. Ward and A. B. 

Waller. Vol. L - - - 158 

Vol. IL 217 

Ceppi, M. French Lessons on the 

Direct Method • - - - 63 
ChateoiJiJbriand^ La Jewnesae de. Ed. 

G. Goodridge .... 258 
Ohaytor, H. J. A First Spanish 

Book 226 

Ch^n de la Bruy^re, Mme. La 

FU d^avjourd*hui ... 252 
Ohouville, L. Trois Semaines en 

France. Ed. D. L. Savory. 

Exercises by Miss F. M. S. 

Batchelor - . - • - -128 
Coleridge. Literary Criticism, In- 
troduction by J. W. Mackail - 220 
Cory, C, et 0. Boemer. Sistoire de 

la Littiraiurefrtmgaise • • 128 
Daudet. UEquipage de la Belle- 

Nivemaise. Ed. T. R. N. Crofts 28 
Dofudet Reading Book, TheAlphonse. 

By J. 8. Wolflf .... - 253 
Der goldene Vogel, amd Other Tales. 

Ed. W. Rippmann - - - 96 
Deelys. Le JSouave, La Montre de 

Gertrude. Ed. A. Barb^ - - 122 
Dumas. Aventures d^Artagnan en 

Angleterre. Ed. E. Auolunuty • 121 
La BouiUiede Mid. Ed. P. B. 

Inc^am 268 

Du Planty, Mile G. La Cousin 

Oudule 262 



FAOF. 

Edmunds, E, W. The Story of 

English Literature. Vol. I. : T?ie 

Elizdbethan Period - - • 28 
Edmunds, E. W., and F. Spooner, 

Readings in English Literature - 28 
Erckmann-Chatrian. Le Docteur 

Math4u8. Ed. W. P. Fuller - 28 
La BataUU de Waterloo. Ed. 

G. H. Evans - - - - 253 
Feuillet. Le Roman d^un jeune 

Homme pauvre. Ed. J. Laffitte - 160 
Fiedler, H. G., and F. E. Sandbach. 

A Second Oerman Course for 

Science Students - . - . 255 
Frazer, Mrs. J. G. Le Chalet PordnU 128 
French Song and Verse for Children. 

Ed. Helen Terry - - - - 123 
Goethe. Egm/mt. Ed. G. Frick - 125 
Gryphius. Herr Peter Sguenz. Ed. 

S. H. Moore - - - • 223 
HflHRelin, H. British Institutions - 252 
Hamsseliu, E. C. Fleur de Neige - 223 

La Belle au Bois Dormant - 160 

Heath's Practical Oerman Orammar. 

By E. S. Joynes and E. C. Wessel- 

hoeft 253 

Heine. Book of Songs. Translated 

by J. Todhunter .... 94 
Heydtmann, I., and E. Keller. 

Deutsches Lehrlmch fur Lehrerin- 

nen seminarien .... 125 
Hugo. La Ligende des Sikdes. Ed. 

G. F. Bridge . - - - 222 
Waterloo (from Les Miser- 

ables). Ed. A. Barr^re - - 28 

Jean Valjean. Ed. F. Draper- 253 

Hulbert, H. H. Foice Training in 

Speech and Song - - - - 61 
James, D. M. Passages for Para- 
phrasing 221 

Johnson on Shakespeare. Introduc- 
tion by W. Raleigh - - - 221 
Kirkman, F. B. La deuxihne Annie 

de Fran^ais 231 

Laboulaye. Poucinet. Ed. F. W. 

Odgers 253 

Lamutine. Premises Meditations 

po^iques. Ed. A. T. Baker • 121 

Lectures pour tous .... 63 
Le Monde oil Fan se hat. Ed. B. E. 

Allpress 253 

Lessing. Selected Fables. Ed. C. 

Heatti 125 

Levi, H. Easy Oerman Stories, Ed. 

L. Delp 255 

Lloyd, R. J. Northern English - 121 
Lucas, St. John. The Oxford Book 

of French Verse - - - - 63 
Macintyi'e, D. Sources and Sounds 

of the English Language • - 61 
Mackay and Curtis. First and Second 

French BookSt Teacher* s Handbook 

to- - - - - . 124 

Maistre. Le L4fpre%ix de la CiU 

d'Aott. Ed. M. Ubesse - 122 



CONTENTS 



vu 



PAOB 

Mar^eritte, Paul. Ma Orande - 262 
Menm^e. ConUs et NouveUes, £d. 

J. E. Michell .... 222 
Michdet. Jeantu d^Are. Ed. S. 

Charl^tyandK. Kiihn- - • 122 
Morax. La Princesae FeuiUe-Morie. 

Ed. A. P. Guiton - - - 122 

Mnnro, W. A. Charles Dickens ei 

Alphonse Daudet: Romanciers de 

V Enfant etdes Humbles - • 221 
Mnssot, Histcire d*un Merle Blanc 

Ed. A. P. Guiton - - - 268 
Pierre et CamiUe, Ed. J. B. 

Patterson 268 

Ogilvie*s Smaller English Dictionary 121 
Payen-Payne, de V. French Head- 
ings in Science - - - - 126 
Rands, B. R. The Young Norseman 221 
Richards, S. A. French Speech and 

Spelling 29 

Band. La Mare an Diable. Ed. 

W. G.Hartog - - - - 128 
La Mare au Diable, Ed. M. 

Pease 29 

Schelling, F. E. Elizabethan Drama, 

1568-1642 219 

Schiller. Kabale und Liebe, Ed. G. 

Frick 126 

Shakespeare. Madfcth, Ed. H. 

Oonrad 62 

Macbeth, Ed. F. Moorman 

and H. P. Junker - - - 190 
Sidney. Apologie/or Poetrie - - 120 
Sicpmann, O. A Short French 

Qrammar 128 

Souvestre. Bemy le Chevritr. Ed. 

E. Ohottin 268 

Th^moin, F. French Idiomatic Ex- 
pressions 124 

The Practice of Instruction : A 

Manual of Method, General and 

Special. Ed. J. W. Adamson • 119 
Thomas, C , and W. A. Hervey. A 

OermcM Reader and Theme-Book - 126 
Tlschbrook, L. M. de la Motte. Der 

neue Leitfaden . - . . 126 
Vigny. PoSsiesChoisies, Ed. A. T. 

Baker 121 

Weber, E. Le petit Orandpt^e et la 

petite Grand^mire- • • • 228 

Schies Enfantines - . 268 

Wichmann, K. Am Rhein - . 224 
Williamson, W. An Easy Poetry 

Book 97 

Wilshire, H. Essentials of French 

Chrammar 124 

Wright, J. Historical German 

Groflnmar 96 

Wyld, H. C. TheGrovoth of English 27 
The Place of the Mother-Tongue 

in National Education ' - • 27 

NOTIS, ITC. 

Ab erystwyth Uniyersity College, 
Anistant Leotnreahip m French - 226 



rAoa 
Alexander, Miss J. M. G. - 191 
Andersson, Catherine - - - 192 
Anglo- Italian Literal^ Society- - 226 
Baccalaur^at, Statistics - - 267 
Barnard, Francis P. • - - - 192 
Birmingham, I^ofessorship of Eng- 
lish 266 

Board of Education, Library - - 191 
Bombay, Elpliinstone College, Eng- 
lish Professorship - - - 97 
Bourdillon, F. B. • - - - 180 

Bowie, Daisy 226 

Bray, A. C. 64 

Brooke, C. F. T. - - - - 81 
Budde, Erich H. - • - - 198 
Cambridge, Girton College, Scholar- 
ships and Exhibitions - - - 129 

Hon. M.A. conferred - - 129 

Medieval and Modem Language 

TripoMS, Result - - - - 160 

Milton Tercentenary - 129, 191 

Newnham College Scholar- 
ships 191, 226 

Shakespeare Scholarship - - 226 

Chaytor, H. J. .... 198 
Columbia University and the ' New 

Sj)elling' 32 

Darbishire, Helen - - - - 82 

Demant,T. 226 

Dictation iu the Foreign Tongue 

(letter by M. Montgomeiy) - - 216 
Dublin, D.Litt. Degree conferred • 64 
Dukes, Irene C. .... 192 
Dundee University College, Lecture- 
ship in English Literature - - 31 
Durham, Armstrong College, New- 
castle, English Professorship - 226 

Armstrong College, Newcastle, 

Exhibition 226 

Edinburgh, Assistant Lecturer in 

Phonetics 64 

Edinburgh, Endowment of French 

and German Chairs - - - 267 

Esperanto 180 

Fitzgerald, Miss R. - - - 267 

Forster, A. B. 198 

Freund, J. 82 

Friedrichs Gymnasium, Berlin, 

English made compulsory - - 82 

Gautier, Jules 191 

German, Professor Kirkpatrick on 

the Neglect of - - - - 193 

Gollancz, Professor - . . . 226 
Good Articles - 64, 98, 130, 162, 194, 268 

Greenock Academy, English Master- 32 

Grunell, Doris .... 226 

Hall, Joseph 129 

Hamier, Miss F. E. - - - 129 

Henderson, Nellie - - - - 129 

Hetley, Miss H. M. - - - 129 

Hobbes (John Oliver) Scholarship - 160 

Hume, Martin - - - 129 
International Visits Association, 

Visit to Norway ... - 180 

Jackson, R. 180 



VIU 



CONTENTS 



PAOB 

Johnflon, Miss F. 0. ... 192 

Keelinc, Miss 267 

Kemmis, Hulwrt B. - - - 192 
Kendall, Miss L. D. - 191 

Kirk, Leslie 0. - - - - 161 
Lady Holies' School, Hackuey, 

French Play .... 32 
Langttes modemes, Les - * • 64 
L*£ntente oordiale, Scholarships - 32 
Littledale, Harold ... - 64 
Liverpool, Chair of Celtic - • 191 

Gilmour Chair of Spanish - 257 

Cludr of Medieval Archaeology • 191 

Chair of Russian - - - 267 

London, Andrews Scholarship - • 192 

Bedford College, Classes for 

Teachers .... - 267 

King's College, English Classes 226 

Lectures on Celtic - - - 192 

Lectures on French Literature 

and on Buskin .... 192 

Scholarships - - - - 192 

University College, John Oliver 

Hobbes Scholarship - - - 160 

Lonsdale, H. 161 

Louth, King Edward VI. Grammar 

School 198 

Lund, A. F. 192 

Lyo6e Fran9ai8, Le (letter by H. 

Eoudil) 29 

MoDouR^, E. H., ObituaTV • - 130 
Maidenhead Modem School, French 

Master 161 

Manchester, Early English Text 
Society's Prize . - . - 192 

Lectureship in Middle Eng- 

liah 129 

Special Lectureship in Portu- 
guese 129 

Marohant, Ella M. - - - 192 

Mawer, Allen 226 

Meyer, Kuno - - - 191, 192 
Mill Hill School . - - - 193 
Milton's Samaon Ag(miM«s, Perform- 
ance 1^1 

Milton Teroentenanr - • .129 
Nagpur, Morris College, English Pro- 

fessonhip 64 

North of England Education Con- 
ference 266 

Norway, Visit to - - - 180 
O'Grady, Hardress - - - - 266 
Oxford, Additional German Lecture- 
ship 160, 193 

Enj^h Readership - . 129, 192 

■O^fordkHon D.Litt conferred - 129 
.— H«iour School of English 

Result\ 161 

• Hdnotk School of Modern Lan- 

^ult - - - - 161 
ninations, Esperanto 
added- V - •• - 180 




Oxford, Magdalen College, Senior 

Demyship 

St. Hilda's Hall, Tutor iu 

Engliali ..... 

St. John's Colleffc, Exhibition • 

Somerville College, English 

Tutor 

Somerville College, Exhibitions 

Worcester College, French 

Exhibition 193 

Worcester College, Scholarship 

in Modem Languages - 
Pares, B. - - - - 
Plymouth College - 
Podtes d'Aiyoura' hui (letter by G. F. 

Bridge) - - . . 
Polyglot Club . 
Powell, Miss H. 



31 

267 
161 



129 



97 
257 
193 



30 

82 

193 

129 

PurdieT Miss'?. M. - - 130, 162 

Reading University College, German 

Lectur^hip . 
R^p^titrices, English 
Riohey, Margaret F. 
Roubaud, M., French Plays 
Rowland, C. H. 

Russian Travelling Studentship 
St. Andrews, German Lectureship 

Lectureship in Phonetics 

St Mary's College, Paddington 

Schaaifs, G. - > - 

Selincoiut, E. de - 

Sheavyn, Miss 

Sheffield, German Professorahip 

Shepherd, H. - 

Smallwood, Edna - 

Smith, David Niohol 

Solden, Louise 

Soman, Miss M. - - - 

Sonnenschein, Professor - 

Soutar, G. . . - . 

Southampton, Hartley University 

College, English Lectureship 
Spurgeon, Miss C. F. E. - 
Sterling, T. S. - - 

Storr8,F. 

T^lor, W. Braid .... 
"Aese Sort of Questions,' letter by 

Jules Pingouin - . - - 

Answer by H. W. Atkinson 
Thomas, P. C. .... 

Thompson, T. 

Todd, Constance - . - - 

Toller, T.N. 

Toronto, Upper Canada College 
Traelove, H. E. - 
Weightmann, Jane . - - - 
Whitechapel Foundation School, 

French and Spanish Plays - 

Whyte,J. D. 

Williams, G. Price - . - - 
Zoooha, Doris de - - - - 



180 

97 

192 

267 

226 

161 

32 

130 

193 

32 

266 

32 

32 

193 

192 

192 

192 

129 

266 

81 

193 

192 

198, 226 

97 

32 

216 
266 
267 

97 
130 
129 
226 
193 

64 

32 
192 
161 
129 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH TBB A88I8TAMCB OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS^ F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A. A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. No. 1 



FEBRUARY. 1908 



THE ANNUAL OENEBAL MEETING. 



LoOKiKO back on a good many Annual 
Meetings of the Modern Langoage Aaaoda- 
tion, we can recall none that gaTe ni more 
iatisfaetion than the last — on January 7 
and 8. The attendance might hare been 
better, it is tnie ; but the abominable 
weather was largely responsible for that. 
The general le?el of the speeches was 
hi^, and cTerything went smoothly and 
in a business-like way. Much of the credit 
naturally belongs to Mr. Bridge, our un- 
wearying Secretary. 

The meeting really began on the Mon- 
day, for there was a Tery pleasant little 
function on the evening of that day. 
Members and their friends assembled in 
the hall of Queen's Ooll^ for a friendly 
ohati diTersified by some excellent music 
and recitations. It was with pleasure that 
we noticed the presence of M. Oamerlynck 
and of Herr Easten, representing the 
French and the Oerman sister associations. 

On Tuesday the proceedings began with 
reports on the progress of the Association. 
These were generally of a satisfactoiy 
character. The number of members (679) 
constitutes a record, and represents an 
inccease of forty-eight during the year ; 
£60 has been iuTested in Consols and 



there ia a baUnoe to the good of £26 ; 
various committees have been and are 
doing valuable work ; the travelling ex- 
hibition has been formed, and has started 
on its travels ; and generally there has 
been keen activity. Let us hope that the 
present year will be as satiifactory as the 
last, so that we may have an equally good 
report next January at Oxford. 

At noon our President, Mr. Storr, rose 
to read his address, and was greeted with 
well-deserved cheers ; for it would be hard 
to exhaust the list of benefits he has con- 
ferred upon the Association. May we 
long be able to profit by his help and 
ftiendly interest His admirable paper 
on The Art of Translation is given on 
another page ; it was universally praised 
for its critical force and fine scholarship. 
Mr. Storr's own masterly renderings are 
familiar to many, and the knowledge that 
he was something more than a critic gave 
additional weight to his words. 

At half-past two Mr. Milner-Bany 
opened a discussion on The Poeition of 
Oerman in English Schools with a very 
able speech, delivered in his impressive^ 
and deliberate manner, so well adapted ta 
driving home a truth. How we wished. 

1 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



the whole Board of Edacetion had been 
there to hear him t For it was the follow- 
ing resolution that he moved, and that 
was carried with only three dissentients : 

' That this meeting, considering it de- 
sirable that greater encouragement should 
be given to the study of German in sohools* 
urges the Board of Education to reconsider 
its policy that, when only two foreign 
languages are taught in a school, one must 
be Latin, unless good reason can be shown 
for its omission.' 

The discussion was continued by Mr. 
Eve, Dr. Breul, and others. The neglect 
of German was deplored by all ; and it 
was generally recognized that in the great 
majority of State-aided schools it was 
impossible to teach more than two foreign 
languages, of which French would in most 
cases be one, and German or Latin the 
other. The action of the Board in urging 
the teaching of Latin practically drives 
German from these schools. 

After an interval for tea and talk. Miss 
Matthews read a vexy good paper on 
Modem Language Work in the West 
Biding, which showed what rapid pro- 
gress was being made in that enlightened 
part of the land. The paper appears in 
this number of Modern Lanouaoi 
TsAOHiNO. The results of the inquiry 
into the conditions of Modem Language 
Teaching were placed before the Associa- 
tion by Mr. Eirkman, who deserves the 
warm thanks of all for the hard work he 
has given to the troublesome task of sum- 
ming up returns from 119 schools, and for 
the ludd way in which he has presented 
his results ; these will appear in our pages 
very soon. 

Punctually at six the members dispersed, 
to reappear again at the Holbom Restau- 
rant, where a choice, if not very laige, 
company sat down to dinner. Mr. Storr 
presided, and among those present were 
Lord Fitanaurice (the incoming President), 
Sir T. Barclay, Herr Kasten, M. Gamer- 
lynck, M. Lhonenx (representing the 
Belgian Association), Mr. Barton Kent (of 
the Entente Oordiale), and Mr. Hodgson 
(of the College of Preceptors). Oanon 



Bell (Principal of Queen's College) and 
Miss Harper (Warden of Queen's College) 
were unfortunately prevented from joining 
the company. Hardly any of the after- 
dinner speeches were felt to be too long, 
and some were distinctly good. Perhaps 
Herr Kasten, with his genial smile and his 
kindly renderings into English of what he 
had said in German, scored the greatest 



Wednesday morning was devoted to 
the question of translation. Mr. Kirknian 
summed up the discussion that has been 
so well sustained during the last year. 
Mr. Milner-Barry read a letter from Mr. 
Siepmann on the subject. Mr. Rippmanu 
also had something to say ; so had others. 
The whole discussion will be printed in 
our columns. Let it suffice to say that the 
members present were, with very few 
exceptions, thoroughly in favour of the 
reform method, and that the reformers 
realixed once more how much their methods 
and their aims were misunderstood, and 
vowed that they would shout them from 
the house-tops until even the deaf should 
hear. The absence of Mr. Latham and 
the silence of his supporters made the 
' discussion ' rather one-sided, but it gave 
the reformers a welcome opportunity to 
state their case again. 

In the afternoon Miss Purdie read an 
excellent^ per on French Plays and Songs 
in Schools. Those who heard it, as well 
as those who did not, will be glad to know 
that it will shortly appear in our pages, 
with certain sections expanded. 

The last item of our programme was a 
debate on certain resolutions on The Age 
for Beginning Languages, passed at a 
conference, held in 1906, of representatives 
of the Assistant Masters' Association, the 
Classical Association, and the Modem 
Language Association. They vnll be found 
in Modern Lanouaob Tbaohino, vol. ii., 
p. 251, and voL iii., p. 244. These resolu- 
tions are the result of a twofold com- 
promise, for they are the best (from our 
point of view) that our representatives 
could obtain in conference with others 
whose outlook differed considerably from 



THE ART OF TRANSLATION 



thdn, and it is meant to apply to all 
kinds of aehools. It is not Borprising that 
only the fint retolntion, dwelling on the 
importanoe of a good Rngliwh groonding, 
ahonid have proTed aooeptaUe to the 
Aatooiation. The wording is aa follows : 

1. 'That before a scholar begins the 
study of a second language he shonld 
hare deyeloped some power of correct 
speaking and writing in English, and 
shoold hsTS acquired some knowledge of 
the fnnctions of words and of their 
grammatioal relations to one another.' 

The remaining resolutions were not 
accepted. To do so would have dealt 
anoUier blow at German, by removing the 
possibility of making it the first foreign 
language, and would also liave been in- 
consistent with the view's expressed on the 
previous day with regard to German as 
the second foreign language. It would, 
further, have sanctioned the beginning 
of a second foreign language at eleven, 



regardless of the fact that twelve is coming 
to be generally recognized as the boundary 
line, especially in State-aided schools. 

The following resolutions were substi- 
tuted and carried unanimously : 

2. * That, in schools where a classical 
and a modem language are both taught, 
the modem language should in all cases be 
taught first.' 

8. *That a second foreign language 
should not be begun until a sufficient 
standard has been attained in the first, 
which in most cases would require two 
years' study.' 

4. 'That no age limit for beginning 
languages can be laid down which can be 
profitably applied to the various types of 
schools for boys and girls where one (or 
more) foreign language is tauglit.' 

A vote of thanks to the Council and 
Oonmiittee of Queen's College brought to 
a conclusion a meeting to which all will 
look back with pleasure and satisfaction. 



THE ART OF TBANSLATION.* 



BxiNO of a conservative turn of mind, as 
are most men who reach my years, I have, 
in choosing my subject for a presidential 
address, been guided mainly by precedent. 
My distinguished predecessors in the office 
have all taken a subject, some with a 
direct and immediate bearing on the 
teaching of Modem Languages, and some 
in which the connexion was remote and 
not at the first blush apparent ; but they 
have, one and all, like the Attendant 
Spirit in OomtUf aspired to move ' in 
regions mild of calm and serene air,' to 
raise us above the * rank vapours of our 
pinfold • — ^the schoolroom — nay, above 
' the smoke and stir of this dim spot ' — the 
conference hall. This ideal I shall en- 
deavour to follow at a respectful distance, 
haud pa*9ibu$ cequis. 
At our last annual meeting at Durham 

* Presidential address at the Annual 
General Meeting of the Modem Language 
Association^ Janusiy 7, 1908. 



the subject that provoked the liveliest 
debate was the place of translation in 
Modem Language Teaching. It was intro- 
duced in an admirable paper by Mr. 
I<atham ; the discussion has been con- 
tinued through the year in the columns of 
our monthly organ ; it has overflowed into 
the present conference, and it will be con- 
summated (I will not say concluded) in 
the resolutions to be moved to-morrow 
morning. In that debate I have no inten- 
tion of intervening, nor should I presume 
to act the part of a judge, and sum up the 
arguments on either side before leaving the 
case in the hands of the jury. It is of 
' Translation as an Art ' that I propose to 
treat, without any reference to pedagogics, 
and I flatter myself that neither party in 
the suit will be able to reap any advantage 
out of my address. 

It is right to forewam my audience (if 
I may borrow a hint from Eot?ien) that 
this address will be quite unprofessiona 
in its character. I have endeavoured to 
1—2 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



diaoud from it all yaliukble matter derived 
from books on method and cyclopflBdiaB of 
education, all display of * aoond learning 
and religions knowledge/ all useful statis- 
tics of child-study, local examinations, 
and University schools, and, most of all, 
all good moral reflexions; and I think 
that those who have the patience to hear 
me to the end will acknowledge that my 
efforts in this direction have been attended 
with great success. 

On the prerogatives of translations (not 
of translation) in the lustoiy of dvili'A- 
tton, in the education of humanity, I need 
hardly dwelL The Battle of the Books 
still rages. The extreme classicist still 
prefers to study natural history from 
Aristotle than from Darwin, and would 
sooner read Sophocles in Greek than 
Shakespeare in his native tongue. The 
extreme left of the modernists hold that 
translation is the Ahriman of language 
teaching, or, like Mr. Oobden, think that 
a single ntmiber of the Times contains 
more information than all the works of 
Thucydides. But these extremes would 
meet in acknowledging that by the trans- 
mitted wisdom of the ancients we are 
what we are, and that the transmitters of 
the lamp of life have been mainly the 
translators. I would go ftirther, and say 
that, supposing all the masterpieoee of the 
world, in their original tongues, oollected 
into one library, and all the translations 
into another, if the dire necessity were 
put upon me to set fire to one or the other, 
I should elect to bum the originals. For, 
like Omar (some will add, like him, in- 
spired with the ignorance of the fanatic), 
I should argue, 'Whatever is of use in 
these writings of Judiea, Greece, and 
Rome, has been preserved in translation.' 

And lest I should seem overbold, let me 
shelter myself behind the broad shield of 
Goethe. Eokermann relates a visit paid 
to Goethe by a young English officer who 
had gone to Weimar to learn German 
(evidently a prototype of Lieutenant 
Woods). Goethe impressed on his visitor 
the importance of knowing German as 
a key to modem European literature. 



French, as the language of society (he 
held), was essential; but as to Greek, 
Latin, Italian, Spanish, we can read the 
best works in these languages in such 
excellent German translations that, except 
for some special object, there is no reason 
why we should waste time on the toilsome 
prooess of leaming tongues. * There is no 
denying,' he added, ' that generally a good 
translation takes us a very long way. 
Frederick the Great knew no Latin, but 
he read his Cioero in the French transla- 
tion, "ebenso gut als wir andem in der 
Urspraohe." And perhaps the highest 
compliment ever paid to a translator was 
paid by Goethe. When in his old age he 
oould no longer read his own Faust, he 
read it with renewed pleasure in Gerard's 
translation. 

It is only from a translation that we 
know the very foundation of Christianity 
— the words of our Lord, the parables, and 
the Sermon on the Motmt. It was in a 
translation that the arts of Greece were 
first introduced into rustic Latium ; and 
the worthy old dominie who rendered the 
Odyssey into rode Satumians — 'Yirum 
mihi, Gamcena, insece versutum ' — de- 
serves a red letter in the Comtist calendar. 
It was on translation that our * morning 
star of song,' Dan Ohaucer, tried his 
prentice hand, till he found himself, and 
far outstripped his French originals. It 
was from a translation— nay, a translation 
of a translation — that Shakespeare quarried 
the materials for his CoriolanuSy Julius 
Oasar, Antony and Cleapalra. Of Keats, 
with far more troth than of Shakespeare, 
it may be said that he knew small Latin 
and less Greek, and in an immortal sonnet 
he has amply paid his debt to Ohapman. 

I began by glorifying translations, but, 
before I proceed frirther and discuss the 
canons of the art, I am bound to meet the 
objections of sceptics who deny the possi- 
bility of translation in the higher ranges 
of literature. 

In his Ltfe of Chethe G. H. Lewes flings 
down a bold challenge to all the world of 
tanslators, which I, perhaps, am still 
bolder in picking up. He has been ex- 



THE ART OF TRANSLATION 



pkiniiig why so many English men of 
letters have declared themselyes dis- 
appointed with Goethe's Fausi; why, for 
instance, Charles Lamb pronounced it a 
Tulgar melodrama compared with Mar- 
lowe's Dodcr Faiudm, He finds a (nil 
explanation in the fact that Lamb read 
Fatui in a translation, and so had not the 
real drama before him. From this par- 
ticnlar instance he is led to the broad 
generalization that all translation of poetry 
IB predestined to failure. ' A translation 
may be good as translation, but it cannot 
be an adequate reproduction of the original 
It may be a good poem ; it may be a good 
imitation of another poem ; it may even 
be better than the original ; but it cannot 
be an adequate reproduction : it cannot 
be the same thing in another language, 
producing the same effect on the mind.' 

And Lewes hits on a most ingenious and 
telling way of establishing his thesis. 
Instead of arguing whether the version of 
Blackie, or Sir Theodore Martin, or Bayard 
Tsylor is adequate or not, he takes a 
simple stanza of a simple English poem 
and translates it into Engluh, Mickle's 
ballad is familiar to aU readers of Kenil" 
vnrth, Soott tells us that its music 
haunted him as a boy. The first stanza 
runs: 
' The dews of summer night did fall ; 
' The moon, sweet regent of the sky, 
Silvered the walls of Oumnor Hall« 
And many an oak that grew thereby.' 

Of this Lewes gives alternative versions, 
one literal and one free : 

* The nightly dews commenced to fall ; 

The moon, whose emjpire is the sky. 
Shone on the sides of Cumnor Hall 
And all the oaks that stood thereby.' 

And more freely : 

* Sweetly did fUl the dews of niffht ; 

The moon, of heaven the lovely aueen. 
On Cumnor Hall shone silver brignt, 
And glanced the oaks' brosd brows 
between.' 

Here, he exclaims, are translations 
which in another language would pass for 
excellent, would win school prizes and 
University medals. In the first the 
meaning, the metre, and m<)tt of the 



words are identical, yet the difference in 
the whole is infinite. It is the difference 
between a garden rose and a wax rose. 
One shade the more, one ray the less, has 
half (nay, wholly) impaired the nameless 
grace. Assuredly neither translation would 
have haunted anyone. We might, it is 
true, contend that Lewes is loading the 
dice, not playing the game quite fairly, 
that * sides' for * walls' is a hopelessly 
prosaic word, and that 'commenced,' as 
here used, is an actual vulgarism ; but, on 
the whole, we are bound to admit that he 
carries us with him, that the analogues of 
his versions in French or German, still 
more in Latin or Greek, where (fortunately 
for our classical prestidigitators) native 
criticism is impossible, would have passed 
as excellent. Admitting this, are we 
bound further to accept his sweeping 
generalization, and pronounce all verse 
translation either a fraud or a failure-— a 
fhiud if it alters even for the better the 
original, a failure if it attempts an exact 
copy ? That is not the conclusion of the 
many, who would by Lewes be ruled out of 
court as unable to judge, nor do I think 
that he will convince the experts whom I 
am addressing to-day. After all, it is a 
question not of a priori reasoning, but of 
facts, and we can call in evidence at least 
one great poem (to which I shall recur) 
that both delights in English those who 
are ignorant of the original, and is pro- 
nounced a faithful transcript by those who 
can compare the two. 

It seems to me that Lewes is dressing 
out as a striking paradox what is at 
bottom a barren platitude. It is obvious 
that directly we pass beyond the com- 
monest objects of sense, the simplest 
actions and emotions of everyday life (and 
even before then), no language can exactly 
reproduce the single words, let alone the 
connected phrases, the rhythm, and har- 
mony, of another language. Each language 
has its own cachet, its own idiosyncracies, 
its idiotism. Words are not counters, nor 
nuggets of gold or silver or copper. They 
are more like coins, each with its own 
image and superscription, for which an 



6 



MODEEN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



ezaot equivalent can be found in a foreign 
ooinage. But even that metaphor is in- 
adequate ; for a word not only bears a 
past history, like a ooin or medal, but it is 
a Hying organism, ever taking to itself new 
aoeretions and shedding part of its sub- 
stance. What is dang to-day may pass as 
standard English on the morrow : a nick- 
name may be taken as the title of a great 
political party ; a gross scurrility may 
become a term of endearment. 

Take the oonmumest words yon can 
think of in English—' boy/ ■ girl/ *friend,' 
' to love *— gallon, JUle, ami, aimer would 
seem at first blush the exact equivalents ; 
but the schoolboy soon learns, to lus cost, 
that they do not always match, and the 
adult translator knows, or ought to know, 
that to each word in either language there 
clings a whole network of associations, 
some obvious, some remote and only half 
perceived, to which he must attend at the 
risk of bathos or absurdity. Thus, to give 
a crude illustration, the incautious French- 
man may be betrayed into saying : ' I love 
that jolly actress,' and the next minute : 
' I love little peas.' De la Place translated 
the title of the old play, Love*$ Lent 
Shift, ' La demi^re ohenuse de Tamour.' 
The Englishman who is not forewarned 
may say of %J9unt ingiwue, without a sus- 
picion of giving offence, ' O'est une fiUe,' 
or of a matron's friend, if he happens to 
be a man of presence, ' CTest son bel ami.' 

Or take the parts of the body. As to 
drees among civilized nations, there is a 
general convention which varies little with 
time or place. But this convention, if I 
may coin the word, is only ' clothes-deep.' 
By a Frenchman ventre, flame, AoneAs may 
be freely named in writing or conversa- 
tion witiiout a shade of coarseness or 
impropriety; but no Frenchman would 
mention his toes except to a surgeon or 
chiropodist A typical instance of simi- 
larity, with a difference between French 
and EngUsh, is theword* bowels.' Thanks 
to the Authorised Version, we can use the 
word in its metaphorical sense. We speak 
of 'bowels of compassion,* thou^^ our 
politer age would squirm at Fuller's de- 



scription of ' Bloody Bonner, that corpulent 
tyrant, ftill of guts and empty of bowels.' 
Yet we cannot use ' bowels ' as freely and 
significantly as the French use the equiva- 
lent «n(mi72et; and when La Bruy^re speaks 
of ' Oeux qui tirent des entrailles tout ce 
qu'ils expriment,' we have to content our- 
selves with the far feebler metaphor ' from 
the heart,' and a phrase like ' donner des 
entrailles aux mots ' drives the translator 
to despair. 

Semantics now forms a recognized branch 
of philology, and I have lingered too long 
on a topic that has been so brilliantly 
treated by Trench and Darmesteter. But, 
if single words are thus hard to render, 
when we pass to combinations of words, to 
phrases, sentences, and periods, the diffi- 
culty increases in geometrical proportion. 
Each word has, as we have seen, its own 
particular niMXfiee, and, farther, this shade 
of meaning is affected by the context. 
The translator has to consider not the just 
equivalent for each individual word, but 
the equivalent that will suit the context, 
and, when he has so far succeeded, the 
hardest part of his task still remains. He 
has so to rearrange or modify the words 
and phrases that the metre or rhythm or 
harmony of the whole passage at once 
satisfies the ear and at the same time is an 
echo of the original, or at least affects the 
foreigner in the same way as the original 
affects a native. 

And at this point of my argument it 
may be noted that the truism or paradox 
of Lewes, which I took as my starting- 
point, cannot, as Lewes would have it, be 
confined to poetry. If poetry is untrans- 
latable, so is prose— I mean, of course, 
literary prose. In thisconnexion. The EU- 
metUe qf Euclid is no more prose than tables 
of logarithms. PhMC, I say — the prose of 
Milton or Hooker, of John Henry Kewman 
or Pkter, of Ruskin or Fronde— has each a 
rhythm and modulation of its own — 
almost, if not quite, as hard to reproduce 
in another langusge as the rime or metre 
of Shakespeare and Milton, of Keats and 
Swinburne. 

Let OS, then, freely concede to Lewes 



THE AET OF TRANSLATION 



that a perfeot tranalation of a poem is a 
chinuens impoanble in the nature of things, 
and oat-paradox Lewes by extending his 
thesis to prose. Are we, therefore, bound 
to accept his oorollary—to allow that the 
Fautt of Gk>ethe must remain a book 
with seven seals to those who know not 
German, the Agamejnnon to all bat Greek 
scholars, the IHvina Commedia without 
a knowledge of Italian, and, not less, 
Rabelais and Bon Quixote to those who 
cannot read Old French and Spanish? 
The question answers itself. Whateyer 
scholars may opine, the world of readers 
has returned an emphatic n^gatiye, and, 
as Ifme de S^Tign^ said : ' Le public a bon 
nes et ne se m^prend guire.' In Lord 
Arebury's * Hundred Best Books,' in the 
▼arious series of reprints that are issuing 
from the press, at least one-fourth of the 
books are translations. 

We members of the Modem Language 
Association, of course, know Danish and 
Spanish (I don't myself, but I was bom in 
the Dark Agee) ; but we all, young and old 
alike, read with delight Hans Andersen and 
Cenrantes before we had mastered those 
beautiftil languages, and it needs not a 
knowledge of Arabic to appreciate The 
Arabian NighU. And there is one book 
that all, whether clerks or laymen, read 
and study mainly in a translation. The 
Dean of Ohrist Church, who commended 
the study of Greek to his class on the 
ground that it enabled them to read the 
Oracles of God in the original and to look 
down from the heights of learning on the 
▼nlgar hsrd, belongs to a past generation ; 
bat, when at conferences I have listened to 
our clerical head masters extolling the 
superlatiye merits of a classical education 
•n the ground, among others, that thus 
alone could the Scriptures be revealed to 
us ; when, on two occasions, I have seen 
eoontry parsons flocking to Cambridge to 
Tote for compulsoxy Greek as though they 
were defending the ark of the Coyenant — 
I should have liked to put to them the 
question : ' How many of you possess a 
Hebrew Bible ; how many know even the 
Hebrew alphabet ?' 



Heayen forbid that before a Modem 
Language Association I should eyen seem 
to be depreciating the study of language, 
of Hebrew and Greek, any more than of 
Trench and German ; but the old leayen 
of the Benaissance, the superstition of the 
elders, still lurks and works, and the study 
is imposed on pupils who cannot profit by 
it, and supported by arguments that will 
not bear examination. Masters of classical 
and of modem sides alike haye not suffi- 
ciently recognized the use and worth of 
translation in education, and would do 
well to lay to heart the wise words of 
Goethe that I have quoted. 

But, in spite of my professions, I find 
myself falling into the moralizing yein. I 
apologize, and revert at once to the brief 
that I have given myself, 'The Art of 
Translation,' and begin with the main 
point at issue, which even in Horace's day 
was a bone of contention— the question of 
literal or free translation. 

Translation is an art, but it has very 
slowly been recognised as such, and in no 
art has theoiy lagged so far behind prac- 
tice. Even now there is, so far as I am 
aware, no treatise on the art of translation 
that can take rank with a score of standard 
works on the art of poetry from Aristotle 
and Horace down to Lessing and Holmes. 
Even monographs such as Matthew 
Amold's famous lectures on translating 
Homer are rare. The Greeks, who are not 
only our models, but our lawgivers in every 
other branch of art and literature, are here 
wholly to seek. They suffer from the 
defects of their qualities; they were 
adr6x^y«f and adrdpicctt, self-developed 
and self-contained. All that is best in 
modem art and literature is translated (in 
the broadest sense of the word) from the 
Greek ; the Greeks themselves translated 
nothing. 

I notice that, under the translation 
competition in The Journal of Bdueation, 
the Prize Editor is often asked whether a 
literal or a free translation is demanded, 
and he, like a pradent man, declines to 
give a categorical answer ; the version, 
competitors are told, must give the whole 



8 



MODEBN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



troth of the origioal, and nothing bat the 
troth, and must at the same time be 
idiomatio English — that is to say, must 
not read like a translation. This is a 
coonsel of perfection to which no mortal 
can attain eren in proee« let alone poetry ; 
and I, being neither a prize editor nor a 
politician, am nnder no necessity to pre- 
serve this non-oonmiittal attitade. There 
is a plain issue between the literalist and 
the spiritualist schools, and I unhesi- 
tatingly take my stand on the text: 
*The letter killeth, but the spirit gireth 
life.' And, if we would judge the two 
schools by their fimits, we could not select 
a more oracial instance for comparison than 
the Authorized and the Reyised Versions 
of the New Testament, especially in their 
respectiye renderings of the Pauline Epistles 
and the Gospel of St John. In the one 
we hare the letter subordinated to the 
spirit; in the other the word-for-word 
rendering, the strictest adherence to the 
text as interpreted by the flower of Biblical 
scholars. I will read without comment a 
few alternatiye versions, and leave those 
who have ears to hear to decide whether, 
in each instance, there is not a eorrupHo 
oplimi, a sacrifice of the spirit to the letter. 
AtUharized Versum, 

Though I speak with the tongues of men 
and of angelB, and have not charity, I am 
become as sounding brass, or a tmkling 
cymbal. 

Charity never faileth : but whether there 
be prophecies, they shall fail; whether 
there be tongues, they shall cease ; whether 
there be knowledge, it shall vanish away. 

Heviad Fenioti, 

If I speak with the tongues of men and 
of axL^^els, but have not love, I am become 
sounduig brass or a clanging cvmbaL 

Love never faileth : but whether there 
be prophecies, they shall be done away ; 
whether there be tongues they shall cease, 
whether there be knowledge, it shall be 
done away. 

Authorized Vmrnon, 

For the creature was made subject to 
vanity, not willingly, but by reason of 
him who hath subjected the same in hope, 
because the creature itself also shall be 
delivered from the bondage of oorraptlon 
into the glorious liberty of the childien of 
God, 



Revimd Version, 
JFoT the creation was subjected to vanity, 
not of its own will, but by reason of him 
who subjected it, in hope that the creation 
itself also shall be delivered from the 
bondage of corroption into the liberty of 
the gloiy of the children of God. 

Authorized Venum. 
And this is life eternal, that they might 
know Thee the only troe God, and Jesus 
Christ, whom Thou hast sent. I have 
glorified Thee on the earth : I have finished 
the work which Thou gavest Me to do. 

Revised Version, 
And this is life eternal, that they should 
know Thee the only true God. and Him 
whom Thou didst send, even Jesus Christ. 
I glorified Thee on the earth, having ac- 
oomplished the work which Thou hast 
given Me to do. 

Authorized Version, 
And thou, Caperaaum, which art exalted 
unto heaven, shalt be brought down to 
helL 

Revised Version, 
And thou, Capernaum, shalt thou be 
exalted unto heaven f thou shalt go down 
to hades. 

The pity of it is that enlightened people, 
clerics — and some among them scholars — 
don't know the difierence ; and while the 
Authorized Version (thank God !) still holds 
its own in the family and in the closet, 
Arom the lecturer we hear more commonly 
than not the Revised Version. 

I have often thought what a mistake 
the revisers made in not co-opting as 
assessors to sit with them in the Jerasalem 
Chamber two or three masters of English — 
John Henry Newman, Froude, Tennyson. 
How different would have been the result ! 
To make a perfect translation requires 
something more than exact scholarship; 
it needs Spraehge/ahl, the literary sense, 
the ear attumed to harmony — inspiration. 

I read in the newspapers that the Sacred 
College has undertaken a revised version 
of the Vulgate, and it is certainly high 
time; but His Holiness must beware of 
' oppositions of science which is falsely so 
called.' Larousse, in the Gfrand Diction^ 
natrSf tells us that the Vulgate is cram- 
full of blunders, and he instances two: 
' Spiritna Dei movit super aquas ' should 



THE AET OF TRANSLATION 



9 



be 'on grand rent, Teiitiu fortii'; and 
instead of ' It is eader for a camel • . .,' 
an abenrd hyperbole, the Greek hu 'a 
rope or cord.' 

A literal translation is a copy, and 
nothing but a copy, la peinture au dS- 
ealqu$, and ex vi termini must be infnrior 
to the original. For a Raphael, a Bnbens, 
a Beynolds we pay in thousands or tens of 
thousands; for a copy, in tens, or, at 
moat, in hundreds of pounds. And yet a 
copy may be so good as to deceive all but 
the elect. But the analogy is not perfect, 
for the artist copyist works im pari 
materia, A translator is more like a 
sculptor set to copy the Venus of Milo in 
clay or plaster, or, it may be, in iyoiy or 
gold ; but, whether the material be meaner 
or costlier, it is differetU, and the product 
must differ, and differ for the worse, in 
nine^-nine cases out of a hundred — ^the 
one happy hit or the freak of genius, when 
the greater man sets himself to copy the 
less. 

A still closer analogy might be found in 
music than in the plastic arts. Tennyson 
most aptly addresses Milton as ' O mighty- 
mouthed inventor of harmonies !' Well, 
when I read Faradiee Lost in Ohateau- 
briand's translation I seem to be hearing 
an organ fugue played on the pianoforte ; 
and when I read Heine's Bueh der Lieder 
in Bowring's or Leland's version, I think 
of the Songs JFiihoiU Words ground out 
on a barrel-organ or repeated on a gramo- 
phone. 

There are the misses, more in number 
than the sands of the sea. Translation 
is like the proud lady in Aristophanes: 
' Many were her lovers, but she gave her- 
self to few.' And yet a record of favoured 
lovers would rival in length the latest 
I4fe of Oeorge Sand, and I must be con- 
tent to select at random a few typical 
specimens. 

My ignorance prevents me from com- 
paring Fitzgerald's Omar Khayydm with 
the original Bubdiydt; but I have com- 
pared it with more than one literal version, 
and have little hesitation in pronouncing 
the SngUsh poem superior to the Persian* 



It is, to recur to my analogy tnm musio, 
as though melodies composed for the 
spinnet were reairanged for a grand piano. 
Even higher as a pure translation, with 
nothing added and nothing omitted, I 
should rank Bossetti's rendering of Villon's 
immortal hattade : 

* Tell me now in what hidden way ia 

Lady Flora, the lovelv Roman t 
Whereas Hipparohia, ana where is Thais, 

Neither of them tiie fairer woman f 
Where is Echo beheld of no man — 

Only heard on river and mere- 
She whose beauty was more than human ; 

But where are the snows of yester-year t 



' Kay, never ask this week, &ir lord* 

Where they are eone, nor yet this year, 
Except with this tor an overword — 
But where are the snows of yester-year f 

Note here in passing how a single word 
gives the key of the position. Had not 
Bossetti by a flash of inspiration coined 
or hit on ' yester-year ' — it has a dying 
(kll — he would not have succeeded. John 
Payne, 'an eminent hand,' has also 
attempted the Ballad of Dead Ladies^ and 
^gr^ously failed. Instead of 
• But where are the snows of yester-year f 
we have 

' But what has become of last year's snow f 
and for 

'Where's H^loise, the learned nun V 
we have 

'Where did the learned H^oise vadef 
Il/a/iU titer Vkhdle. 

Equally perfect in its way, though not 
such a Umr de force, is William Johnson's 
translation of the famous epigram of 
Oallimachus! 

'They told me, Heracleitus, they told me 

you were dead ; 
They brought me bitter news to hear and 

bitter tears to shod. 
I wept as I remembered how often yon 

and I 
Had tired the sun vdth talking and sent 

him down the sky. 

' And now that thou art lying, my dear 

old Carian guest, 
A handful of giiey ashes, long, long ago 
at rest. 



10 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHINO 



Still are thy ploMant roioes, th j night- 
ingales awake ; 

Far Death, he taketh all away, but these 
he cannot take.' 

It would be oniel to compare with this 
an altematiye venion by an eminent 
classical scholar who thought that John- 
son had not done justioe to the original, 
and that by a more literal translation he 
could reveal to us the true beauty of the 
Greek. 

One more specimen, and that a fragment 
Here is Clone's version of an Alcaic stanza 
of Horace : 

* Eager for battle hers 
Stood Vulcan, here maternal Juno, 
And« with his bow to his shoulder 
faithful. 
He who with pure dew laveth of Oastaly 
His flowing locks, who holdeth of Lyoia 
The oak forest and the wood that 
bare him. 
Deles' and Patara's own Apollo/ 

This is a ^ype of the happy accident, and 
the chief merit of Clough consists in seeing 
that, for once, a Latin exotic could be 
transplanted, roots and all, and flourish 
in EngUBh soiL 

By way of contrast I will dte Dn 
Bellay's Song of the Winnoufen, 'an 
Italian thing transplanted into that green 
country of Ai^'ou out of the Latin verses 
of Kangerius into French. The matter is 
almost nothing ; the form is almost every* 
thing.' The matter, the Latin elegiacs, 
you will flnd in Masson's Lyre Fran^iee ; 
of the form, the Old French of Du Bellay, 
I can give you only a feeble echo : 

* Ye frolic airs that fleet 
With music in vour feet 

O'er sea and land, 
Rustling the leafy shade, 
Bippling the woodland glade, 

Ught-wingid band 1 

* Lily and rose I bring ; 
' Look on my offering, 

Violets and roses. 
Violets all wet with dew. 
Pinks and carnations too. 

Fresh gathered posies. 

'Airs from the summer sea. 
Breathe over lawn and lea, 
Fan my retreat 



The while I toil amain. 
Winnowing the golden min. 
Through the day's heat' 

I have chosen these four specimen 
somewhat at random. Few and brief as 
they neceesarily are, I hope they may 
serve to convince you that Lewes's paradox 
is one of those half truths that is always 
worse than a lie. I choose tliem without 
tarriire peneSe ; but it happens, as you will 
have observed, that all four are by poets. 
Are we not justified in drawing the infer- 
ence that poetry can be adequately ren- 
dered only by a poet — a poet, that is, 
either in eeee or inpoeaet Let us hear the 
canon of translation laid down by Bossetti 
himself: 'The life-blood of rhythmical 
translation is this commandment that a 
good poem shall not be turned into a bad 
one. The only true motive for putting 
poetry into fresh language must be to 
endow a fresh notion as far as possible 
with one more possession of beauty. Poetry 
not being an exact science, literality of 
rendering is altogether secondary to this 
chief law. I say literality, not fidelity, 
which is by no means the same 
thing.' 

And let those who think themselves 
in poete take to heart this confession of 
Victor Hugo which I am bound to quote, 
though it flatly contradicts my main con- 
tention : ' Je d^dare qu'une traduction en 
vers par n'importe qui me semble une chose 
absurds, impossible et chim^riqne. £t 
j'en sais quelque chose, moi, qui ai rim^en 
fran^ais (ce que j'ai cach^ soigneusement 
jusqu'i ce jour) quatre ou cinq mille vera 
d'Horace, de Luoain, et de Virgile.' 

Every modem translator has tried his 
band on Heine's lyrics, but the wise have 
followed the example of Victor Hugo and 
kept them in ecrinio. 

Time forbids me from giving more than 
two illustrations of Bossetti's canon of 
fidelity as opposed to literality, drawn from 
longer poems. The first I will take from 
Ooleridge's WaUenstein, The lines are 
doubtless familiar to most of you, but I 
myself never tire of hearing them re- 
peated: 



THE ART OP TRANSLATION 



11 



' The intelligible fonns of anoient poets, 
The fkir hninanitiee of old religions, 
The power, the beaafy,snd the nugestj, 
That had her haunts in dale or piny 

monntain. 
Or forest by slow stream, or pebbly 

spring. 
Or ohasms or watery depths — all these 

have vanished. 
They live no longer in the taith of 

reason ! 
Bat still the heart doth need a language. 

still 
Doth the old instinot bring baok the old 

names; 
And to yon starry world they now are 

gone, 
Spirits or Gods that used to ttbtae this 

earth 
With man as with their friend ; and to 

the lover 
Yonder they move, from yonder visible 

skj 
Shoot influenoe down ; and even at this 

day 
lis Jupiter who brings whate'er is 



1 Yenos 



And Yenos who brings everything that's 
fidr.' 

The first six lines, as you are doubtless 
aware, are an interpolation for which Cole- 
ridge found no hint in the German. Yet 
they are no purple patch sewn on to an old 
garment. Coleridge has, as it were, put 
on the singing robes of his master ; he is 
the Miranda who takes Ariel's lute, and aa 
he plays the same melody in another key, 
there oomes a JiaehkUmg, a variation of 
tlie original theme, a softer, sadder, sweeter 
harmony. 

For my seoond illustration I will choose a 
rendering of Horaoe by Dryden. He oalls 
it a paraphrase, ' a paraphrase in Pindaric 
verse,' and it stands at the opposite pole 
to the literal translation ; but if I wished 
to convey to an Rnglish reader an idea of 
Horace's genius, of his €urio$afelicUa$ (an 
untranslatable phrase, by the way), of his 
sublimated common - sense philotophy, 
never so well expressed in iH>etry before 
or alter, I should refer him, not to the 
Clon^ fragment, still less to Milton's 
* What slender youth . . . V — that is only 
half hatched, and bits of the shell still 
stick to the chick — ^but to Diyden's para- 
phrsseofOdel. 20; 



' Fortune that with malicious joy 
Doth man her slave oppress. 
Proud of her office to destroy. 
Is seldom pleased to bless : 
Still various and unoonstant still. 
But with an inclination to be ill, 
Promotes, degrades, delights in strife, 
And makes a lottery of life. 
I can eigoy her while she's kind. 
But when she dances in the wind 
And shakes the wings and will not stay, 
Ipuff the proetitute away. 
The little or the much she gave is quietly 

resigned; 
Content with poverty^ myself I arm. 
And virtue, tnough m rags, will keep 
me warm. 

'Whatis'ttome, 
Who never sul in her unfaithfrd sea. 

If storms arise and clouds grow black, 

If the mast split and threaten wrack, 
Then let the greedy merchant fear 

For his ill-gotten gain, 
And prav to Gods that will not hear 
While the debating winds and billows 
bear 

His wealth into the main. 
For me, secure from Fortune's blows, 
Secure of what I cannot lose. 
In my small pinnace I can sail. 

Contemning all the blustering loar 
And running with a merry gale. 

With friendly stars my safety seek 

Within some little winding creek. 
And see the storm ashore.' 

The last quotation raises an important 
question, at which I can only glance. 
Ought the translator of verse to follow, or, 
where this is impossible, to attempt to 
reproduce the metre of the original, as 
Milton and Clough have done, or is he at 
liberty to choose his own metre and turn 
Horace's alcaios into ' Pindaric verse ' like 
Dryden ? No universal canon can be laid 
down ; each case must be tried on its own 
merits ; but I will make bold to submit a 
few practical observations. 

Any attempt to naturalize a metre tha 
is alien to the genius of the language is 
predestined to failure. This may seem a 
platitude, and remind some of you of the 
old epigram about treason ; and I allow 
that in most cases it is only by experiment 
that we can determine whether or not the 
language can be adapted to a foreign metre. 
Yet I think there are cases where we can 
pronounce a priori that a metro is an un* 



12 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



transplantable ezotic Thus, alliteiatiTe 
Terse, though native to the soil, is now 
extinct, and no one would dream of roTiving 
the metre of 

' In a somer seson whan soft was the 
Sonne.' 

Again, any attempt to write quantitative 
verse in English is absurd, and even a 
true poet like Dr. Bridges laiU egregionslj 
when he essays it In saying this I am 
not prejudging the question of English 
hexameters. This is far too vexed and 
intricate a matter for me to embark on 
when I am almost reaching my tether. 
All I would remark is that English hexa- 
meters, whether good or bed, are accentual, 
not quantitative. Take the much-admired 
distich of Coleridge (an excellent transla- 
tion of Schiller) : 

'In the hexameter rises the fountain's 
mlvexy column, 
In the pentameter aye falling in melody 
back.' 

Turn this into Latin and observe the 
metrical effect: 

'Surgit in hexametro versus argenteus 
amnis. 
Usque loquax fluit in pentamotro retro 
fons.' 

My hexameter may pass because I have 
failed to find a Latin dactyl that would 
correspond to 'in the hex-,' but a fourth- 
form boy would be swiahed for showing up 
such a pentameter. 

This leads me to another observation. 
In judging of the appropriateness of any 
metre as a medium of translation, firag- 
ments are a vexy inadequate test Matthew 
Arnold seems to me to have fStdlen into 
this error when he pronounced in favour 
of SngliBh hexameters as the best metre 
for translating Homer, misled by a brilliant 
fragment of Dr. Hawtrey : 

* Clearly the rest I behold of the dark-eyed 
sonsof Achaia.' 

So, too, the specimens that F. W. Myers 
gives us in his essay on Virgil might per- 
suade us that the heroic couplet is the 
metre for rendering the JSneid. What can 
be more perfect than— 



' Tears calls for tears, and honour honour 
brings. 
And human hearts are touched by human 
things. 

• Thrice in high heaven with dimmed eyes 

wandermg wide, 
Shesouffht the light and found the light 
and sighed.' 

Yet I cannot doubt but that we should 
thus be led to a wrong conclusion, that the 

* long roll of the hexameter ' can as little 
be conveyed by the metre of Pope and 
Dryden, as by the ballad metre of Scott, 
UdiB Conington. 

One would have said that this metre is 
even less fitted for translating a Greek 
tragedian, but then comes Mr. Murray with 
his translation of the ffippolytus and 
Medea (not, it is true, in the couplets of 
Pope, but the freer measure of Keats and 
Morris), and takes the town by storm, 
demonstrating the danger of all a priori 
judgments. 

We may apply the same general law to 
metre as to language. We must catdi 
the spirit, and a literal transference is 
« faith unfaithful, falsely true.' Who, for 
instonce, would think of rendering Greek 
iambic verse or the common French metre 
into English alexandrines! Browning's 
failure in his Affomemnan shows that the 
attempt is desperate. So, too, Tennyson's 
experimental alcaics seem to me but a 
partial success. 

• And bloom profuse and cedar arches ' 
does not represent the normal 

*Oum flore, Maecenas, roearum.* 

I cannot but think that the original metre 
of the lines to F. D. Maurice and The 
Daisy convey far more closely to an 
English reader the metrical effect of 
Horace. You must not judge of its capa- 
bilities by the following halting experi* 
ment— the last four stanzas of the Begulue 
Ode: 

• He turned him from hia wife's embrace, 
His oUnging brood, as in disgrace, 

(So runs tlie legend) and austerely 
Bent on the ground his manly face. 



THE ART OF TRANSLATION 



13 



' Nor swerved he from his grim intent, 
Till to his will the Senate hent. 

And girt about by mourning loyers, 
Soger the self-made exile went. 

' Well knew he what before him lay — 
The rack, the wheel — ^yet no less gay 

He thrust aside beseeching kinsmen, 
And 'mid the fond crowds foroed his 
way. 

' Than« if the day's long business o'er, 
A lawyer, through the crowded door 

He hied for some Yenafran rilla 
Bound, or Taranto's Greek-built shore.' 

There are in the English language some 
half-dosen great unrimed lyrics— not 
more, if so many— «nd these rarer ex- 
ceptions pTOTe the general rule as laid 
down by George Meredith. ' In lyrics the 
demand for music is imperative, and, as 
quantity is denied to the English tongue, 
rimes there must be.' We must accept, 
too, his rider— that the weakness of 
English in dissyllabios puts out of bounds 
for the translator much of Heine, and, we 
may add, of the greatest German and 
Italian poetry. The correlative truth was 
forcibly expressed by Goethe: *Wenn 
man die schlagenden einsilbigen Worte 
der Englander mit vieUilbigen oder zu- 
sammengesetzten deutschen ausdrucken 
will, so ist gleich alle Kraft und Wirkung 
verloren.* 

One more general observation. Verse 
must be rendered by verse, and I wholly 
dissent from Mr. Andrew Lang's dictum 
that a prose translation of the Odyssey 
must eonvey the meaning of Homer more 
faithfully than could any verse translation. 
If we are studying the Lucretian philo- 
sophy, we consult Munro ; but who by 
reading Munro's prose translation would 
discover that Lucretius is a great poet? 
If I wanted to give a Greekless modem 
side a notion of the genius of Sophocles, I 
should set them not Jebb, but Whitelaw. 
And, if I may express my own private 
opinion, I believe that the best medium 
for translating, not only Greek tragedies, 
but the Greek and Latin epics, will be 
found after all to be blank verse. It is 
par MotUmu thi English metre of infinite 



variety, plasticity, and adaptivity. It 
can creep, as in — 

' A Mr. Wilkinson, a deigyman.' 
It can thunder, as in — 

• Ruining along the illimitable inane.' 
It can ripple, as in — 

' So they were wed, and merrily rang the 
bells.' 

It can wail, as in— 

' Thea, Thea, Thea, where is Saturn t' 

Lastly, translation is not, like soienoe, 
a series of ascending stepping-stones. Of 
no translation can we say that it is a 
KTfj/uL is dtL Each age demands its own 
interpreter. Homer has one message for 
the eighteenth century and another for 
the twentieth ; and if even Tennyson had 
frdfiUed his intention and left us a transla- 
tion of the jBneid, I doubt whether it 
would have lasted on as the authorised 
version of Virgil in the two thousands. 
We may bind our Proteus, and think we 
have wrested from him all his secret. And 
the inspired Aristeus of the age may 
succeed in hiving his swarm, so that ' out 
of the strong there came forth sweetness. ' 
But Aif generation passes ; the bees have 
flown, the Old Man of the Sea is * re- 
solved into his primal figure/ and Dryden 
seeks again to bind whom Addison had 
loosed. A Courier rewrites Amyot, North 
translates through Amyot, is supplemented 
by Langhome, and is in turn refurbished 
by dough. ' Italiam sequimur ftigientem,' 
islands of the blest, 

' Whose margin fades for ever and for ever 
as we move.' 

And yet it is no ignis faiutis, no mocking 
mirage, that allures. To few of us is it 
granted to hand down the lamp of life ; 
but in this race, as with the beacon fires 
which carried the news of Ilium's fall from 
Ida to Argos, first and last are alike 
winners, and they who fail to be a light to 
others are in the endeavour themselves 
enlightened, warmed, and comforted. 
The humblest and least successful of her 
train, though his efforts be but a flicker of 
the dying lamp, can invoke this solace of 



u 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



old ige, the friendship that is ooutant 
to the end, when the ideals of yonth have 
one by one departed, the Beaeha/ligung 
of Schiller: 

' And bring thy sister, sweet Employ, 
Who stills, like thee, the troubled 
breast, 



Toils slowly, vet can ne'er destroy. 
And never u*king knows no rest ; 

Who onlv grain by grain can set, 
To bnild the dome the Eternal rears, 

But from life's overwhelming debt 
Erases minutes, days, and years.' 

F. Stobb. 



WORDS OR PICTURES? 



In his article on this subject in 
the November number of Modern 
Lanouaob Tbachino, Mr. Chaytor 
raises a question to which, I believe, 
sufficient attention has not been 
paid in discussions on modes of 
teaching languages. It is just one 
of those points on which modem 
psychology is able to give that kind 
of general guidance and warning 
against error which is all that the 
practical teacher can with reason 
demand from a general science, 
* exact' or inexact. That for over 
a quarter of a century I have been 
a student of the educability of 
human minds — or, if the reader 
likes, of the psychology of educa- 
tion — is my only excuse for offering 
a brief contribution to the subject. 

Mr. Chaytor says : ' One of the 
first questions which presents itself 
is an inquiry whether we think in 
pictures or in words. ... I my- 
self, and, I believe, the majority of 
educated men, think in words, and, 
moreover, in printed words.' May 
I venture to suggest that the state- 
ment of alternatives is both de- 
ficient and wanting in precision 1 
A more accurate enunciation would 
be, ' think in pictures of things^ in 
pictures of vxtrds^ in words imaged 
as heard^ in words imaged as tUtered^ 



or in various combinations of two 
or more of these modes.' The 
number of variations included under 
the last alternative is incalculable 
if account be taken of degrees of 
emphasis. But for practical pur- 
poses this may be disregarded, for 
each such combination is dominated 
— at least in the great majority of 
cases — ^by one of the four modes 
specified, and may, therefore, be 
classed practically under such mode, 
so long as it be borne in mind that 
the other modes are usually opera- 
tive, though in a less degree. 

Now, very numerous inquiries 
indicate that the vast majority of 
people — ^young and old — think in 
this mixed way. (Of course I am 
using the word ' think ' in the wide 
and untechnical sense.) The number 
who have very definite pictures of 
things, and nothing else, in their 
minds is very small — and happily 
so, for that way madness lies: 
pictures standing alone are not far 
removed from delusions. (Equally 
small is the number, amongst whom 
I myself must be placed, who can 
get no visual image whatever, either 
of thing or of word.) The number 
who hear words is more consider- 
able, and this is specially the mark 
of the musician; but hero again, 



WOEDS OR PICTURES t 



15 



were this the only form taken by 
thoughts, delusion would not be fair 
off. These 'sensuous* modes of 
* thinking ' are, then, auxiliary, and 
each by itself is dangerous in an 
extreme form. Moreover, sensuous 
images, especially those of sights, 
deal essentially with perceptual ex- 
perience, and cannot by themselves 
rise into that conceptual activity to 
which the name Hhoiight' strictly 
belonga 

The thinking in words uttered — 
Le^ the experiencing of incipient 
utterance as the accompaniment of 
thought — ^iB more common even 
amongst children than is frequently 
supposed. Its presence is hidden 
by the greater immediate promi- 
nence of the visual images of the 
things, which in a more or lees 
vivid form frequently accompany 
it, especially with those who, like 
young children, live a predomin- 
antly perceptual life. 

The neglect of this was one of 
the most serious defects of the 
'old' method of teaching lan- 
guages, whether modern or ancient; 
and one of the most striking im- 
provements made by the newer 
methods is due to the thorough 
exercise it gives to speaking by 
the pupils, and thus to gaining 
the perceptual experience which this 
'motor' form of imaging repro- 
duces. That such motor imaging 
allies itself most readily with visual 
images of words in every mind 
which is familiar with words as 
printed or written goes without 
saying. Possibly, if Mr. Chaytor 
analyses a little further what goes 



on in his own mind, he will find 
that his imaged 'printed words' 
are accompanied or sustained by 
incipient utterances; at any rate, 
that is the most common experience 
of the many of whom I have made 
inquiries respecting this matter. 

Unless some form of word- 
imaging combines itself with vivid 
visualization of things, the pheno- 
mena of mental arrest must ensue ; 
for, as has been already remarked, 
the visualization of things cannot 
pass beyond the particular. Even 
with young children, then, to make 
this visualization of things (in- 
cluding simple 'actions' under that 
term), the essential foundation of 
language teaching seems to be an 
error, because it fails to provide 
the readiest means of advance in 
range and generality of thought, 
and because, in the great majority 
of normal minds, it places the 
accidental accompaniment in the 
place of the fundamental procesa 
The aim of intellectual training is 
to make the perceptual the stepping- 
stone to the conceptual, and the 
conceptual can only be reached 
when words take the place of 
'things ' as intellectual counters. 

Mr. Chaytor's problem, then, 
' Does the learner think in pictures 
or in words f needs to be inter- 
preted in the way set forth in the 
beginning of this article. Whether 
the words be seen, heard, or per- 
ceived in incipient utterance, they 
must be utilized, and even as wards 
made the essential feature in any 
method which aims at true intel- 
lectual training. But whether they 



16 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



ofv seen, or heard, or uttered makes 
all the difference to the successof any 
given piece of teaching. So when 
Mr. Chaytor says, ' Does the learner 
think . . .t' I would insiat that 
'the learner' must be interpreted 
indioiduMy. Probably in a given 
class every pupil will think more or 
less in every form^ but one form 
will be dominant in each individual 
mind, and the others only auxiliary. 
Unless the teaching appeals to the 
dominant form, the result attained 
is sure to be disappointing. And 
I believe many cases of partial 
failure with individuals may be 



explained by the fact that the 
lessons have too persistently ignored 
one of the characteristic modes of 
imaging; assuming — as seems to 
be frequently done — ^that, because 
young children can generally 
visualize things more or less dis- 
tinctly and vividly, they therefore 
' think in ' those images. In truth, 
normally the images only vivify 
and add attractiveness to thoughts 
whose real supporting line of 
imagery is in the neglected, because 
more obscure, train of incipient 
utterances. 

J. Wklton. 



ADENOIDS AND MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING.* 



As a pathological fact the hypertrophy of 
the pharyngeal, or, as it Ib called, the 
upper or third tonsil, to differentiate it 
from the fancial ones, is no longer a secret 
to medical science. Some thirty-four 
years ago it was discovered, or at least 
first discussed thoroughly, by the Danish 
physician Dr. Wilhelm Meyer, and its 
nature has since been made dear by a 
long series of investigators, many of 
world-wide fame. 

With another term, which, it is true, 
does not cover the same idea exactly, this 
lesion has been called adenoids or glandu- 
lar growths. All authors who haye 
written on adenoids have also treated of 
their pernicious effects upon respiration, 
hearing, speech, and oonmion intelligence. 

But if these facts are well known to 
science, are they also well known to all 
who practi^ie the medical profession t Is 
it not principally the advanced cases^ with 
symptoms obvious to any observer, that 

* This paper was read at the Inter- 
natlonid Congress on School Hyjnene in 
August, 1907. The author. Dr. fiagelin, 
of Nykdntng, Sweden, is a distinguished 
Modern Language teacher and phonetician. 



are examined or treated f Does the 
medical help come up to the frequency of 
the oases recorded (e.^., from some 12, 18, 
or 16 per cent, up to 30 or 35 per cent., out 
of a number including from 1,000 to 7,000 
children compared below) ? 

Above all, are these facts known, or 
known as they should be, to the teach- 
ing world, to educational authorities in 
general t and does there exist, not only 
on peper, a due co-operation oetween 
medical men and teachers T Of course, in 
the great centres — in London, Paris, 
Berlin, Oopenhagen, Stockholm, New 
York, etc. — such a co-operation may be 
found to a greater or lesser extent ; but 
you must pardon me, layman as I am, if 
I maintain that, at least to judge from 
experiences in my own country, these 
questions must be answered in the nega- 
tive. 

At the most, the great minority of 
teachers may have heard the word men- 
tioned ; but have they had their attention 
directed to the extreme importance of the 
pathological facts to which I have just 
referred t 

Every teacher, and, for reasons to be 



ADENOroS AND MODEEN LANGUAGE TEACHING 17 



detaikd more partionlarly below, especially 
erery teacher of modem langnagee, should 
know the most essential anatomical and 
pathological facts as regards adenoids, for 
th« very simple reason that ignorance of 
these fkots will interfere greatly with the 
results he or she aims at, and with the 
way and method in which these aims are 
to be realized. 
To som np these firsts : teachers should 



That the pharyngeal tonsil is located 
elose to the back part of the nose caTity 
in the cube-shaped highest portion of the 
pharynx, or the upper part of the oeso- 
phagus. This upper tonsil is part of the 
lymphatic tissues extending over the 
tongue root, over the back of the soft 
palate, and centring in the faucial tonsils 
and in the pharyngeal tonsil itself ; 

That its physiological task, very likely, 
is that of a safeguard against micro- 
organisms threatening the human body 
fhmi the air breathed through the nose. 
Leucocytes, the defenders of the human 
f^ame against yimlent invaders, are 
held in the meshwork of the lymphatie 
tissue of this tonsil, as in that of the 
other; 

That its normal size yaries according to 
the size of the pharynx ; 

That its anatomical structure is rich in 
bloodyessels ; 

That, owing to hereditary disposition 
or to the invasion of pathogenous microbes 
taken in with the air, with the food, or 
in other ways, these bloodvessels may 
develop in divers directions to such an 
eoctent as to fill up the whole epipharynx, 
and thereby shut off the acoess of air at 
one side to the nose and at the other to 
the Eustachian tube ; 

That this hyperplasia or enlargement, 
very likely ori^^ting in the overstrained 
Amotion of the organ, sometimes makes 
the tonsil of a child, seven to ten years 
old» the size of a walnut ; 

That a relatively slight hypertrophy in 
some cases may be enough to produce as 
disastrous effects as a considerable one ; 

That, at the age of puberty, up to some 



twenty years or even later, it will gradu- 
ally disappear, but not without leaving 
its traces in a retarded physical or mental 
development ; 

That this enlarged tonsil often is the 
nest of the bacilli of tuberculosis and 
diphtheria ; 

That its deteriorating effects upon the 
human frame consist : 

(a) In making respiration through the 
nose partially or totally impossible, by 
blocking the posterior nares or the normal 
passage of the air through the nose to the 
lungs, and by necessitating respiration 
through the mouth with a less satisfactory 
oxygenating of the blood. The most 
frequent symptom of adenoids, therefore, 
is the open mouth with the dull and 
stupid facial expression, the large distance 
between the eyes, the snoring sleep, inter- 
rupted by frightened cries — all these 
symptoms, not to mention others, being 
consequences of the insufficient respiration 
through the mouth. The symptoms are 
found in young children and also in grown- 
up persons. Adenoids may be, and often 
are, present without them in young per- 
sons of fifteen to seventeen years who have 
conquered the habit of mouth-breathing. 
Mouth-breathing and mouth-breathers are, 
therefore, no adequate terms for adenoids 
and sufferers from this derangement. 

(() In causing defective hearing (which 
may range from total deaf-muteness to 
varying hearing) by blocking the Eusta- 
chian tube. 

When suffering from a cold in your 
head, you will have an experience of that 
kind. There is a feeling as if something 
is filled up in the nose cavitv or in the 
pharynx, tiie air pressing on the tympanic 
memorane only. On blowing your uoee 
you will hear something like a weak report 
in the ear, when the air gets access to tiie 
tube. The enlargement of the upper 
tonsil practically lias the same effect as a 
trap-door set to one entrance to the ear. 

Hence the great mental importance of 
adenoids. Since man receives by far the 
greater number of mental impulses from 
his surroundings chiefly by the ear, one of 
the first conditions for a normal develop- 

2 



18 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



ment of his brain-power is a healthy organ 
of hearing. Thousands and thousands of 
men and women are lagging behind in life, 
becanse they haye lost, or never had, that 
advantage. Here the pedagogical, and 
more than that, the great social importance 
of the question comes in. 

(c) In causing defective, half-infantile 
s])eech. 

Defective hearing and shutting of the 
nose-passage would be quite enough to 
explain defective speech, as an insufficient 
I>erception of sounds leads to an ineffective 
and, as it were, tentative innervation. 

To the shut nose-passage are due the 
iulistitutions of b, d, g, for m, n, ng—€,g,, 
' sabbe dight ' for * summer night.' 

(d) In lowering the ordinary intellect 
and the faculty of concentrating thought 
upon a fixed subject. 

It has been shown by A. Key and 
6. Retzius that there exists a close con- 
nexion between the lymphatic vessels of 
the nose-cavity and those of the meningeal 
spaoes. TuberculosiB may thus often be 
transferred from the upper tonsil to the 
meninges. If this is so, it is obvious that 
there is an intimate correlation between 
all conditions of health of this tonsil and 
the meningest one of the highways of brain- 
life. 

No wonder, then, that the so-called 
aprosexia, or lack of attention, as the 
school term runs, the inability of follow- 
ing, eg., an oral lesson, and in general of 
concentrating thought upon a subject, 
should be one of the most conspicuous 
symptoms of adenoids. 

Now, all these serious consequences of 
adenoids, many of them life-risks, may be 
totally, or at least partially, avoided by 
removing the upper tonsil. 

Medical science does not demand their 
removal in all cases of enlargement There 
is even a theory the aim of which is to 
restore the whole constitution by fresh air 
and a good nutrition. In all cases where 
the hearing is seriously interfered with, 
the tonsil had better be removed. 

The only trustworthy diagnosis is said 
to be by digital palpation, or feeling with 



the finger. Another is by the use of the 
rhinoscope or nose-mirror. 

The method of removing adenoids 
usual in our country is by means of the 
ring -knife invented by Dr. Beckmann. 
In the hands of an experienced and oarefnl 
physician the operation itself is without 
real danger—connected with some dis- 
comfort at most. After some hours of 
rest the pupil will be able to resume work. 

This operation should take place at the 
early age of seven to ten years. If the 
adenoids are removed later the operation 
will no doubt be useful, but it is said not 
to prevent the over-development of the 
turbinate bodies which will have a similar 
effect to the enlargement of the tonsil 
itself, as it necessitates oral respiration. 

It may be added that relapses are likely 
to occur, but tliat 'with great advantage 
the pharynx may be scraped in order to 
rid it of fresh growths. 

If one of the first duties incumbent on 
school is, within the scope of its work, to 
carry on the mental training of the pupils 
to such a point as to make them men and 
women fit for life's struggle and able to 
take care of their physical welfare, which 
is at once fundamental for individual 
sucoess and social prosperity, it goes with- 
out saying that school is responsible for 
all mistakes arising from the neglect of 
this impediment to progress in school and 
life — adenoids. 

It is, therefore, self-evident that teachers 
should try to acquire a thorough know- 
ledge of their pupils, if possible, from the 
point of view briefly sketched above. 

An examination for the presence of 
adenoids should, therefore, be made com- 
pulsory in the case of all children when 
entering a school, whether it be a public 
or a private school, whether elementary 
or secondary, whether for boys or girls. 

If we insist on examination we must, of 
course, also insist on treatment. 

For reasons referred to above, not only 
oases where adenoids are now present 
should be examined and recorded, but also 
all such cases where they have been present, 
bat removed, should be registered; first. 



ADENOIDS AND MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 19 



they may recur; in the leoond 
place, because, as stated already, they 
may have left traces prodadng a defective 
hearing, as bad as adenoids themselves. 
It is the faculty of hearing aU teachers 
are interested in, and they have a right to 
claim that a test should be applied whether 
it is normal or not 

Without that knowledge they will build 
on sand. I am afraid that at present only 
suspected cases obvious to all are sent to 
the doctors ; but, as has been pointed out, 
in many patients the usual external 
symptoms do not appear and the physio- 
logical ones, defective hearing and speech, 
are mostly overlooked, or explained as if 
they were due to feeble-mindednees only, 
by the great m^ority of teachers whose 
attention has never been directed to ade- 
noids. 

It will interest readers of this paper to 
know that Stockholm can boast of such 
compulsory examination and treatment (if 
found necessary). 

Since 1905 three specialists for the 
diseases of the ear, nose, and throat have 
been attached to the Board-schools of our 
oapitaL 

'These specialists are required to ex- 
amine every child in the second course 
(about eight years of age) at the beginning 
of every school term, and also all the new- 
comers in the higher courses, provided 
they have not previously attended any 
public elementary school. They must 
also examine all children who are sent 
to them in term-time by the ordinary 
medical officer, or by the head teacher, 
for special treatment of the ears, nose, and 
throat' 

In 1905. 8,495 children were examined : 



Of these, 456, or 18*8 per cent, suffered 
from enlargement of the upper tonsil; 
470, or 14*8 per cent, showed enlargement 
of the faudal tonsils ; 257t or 7*8 per cent, 
showed defective hearing; and 60 per 
oent were treated. 

In 1906, 8,907 were examined : 468, or 
12 per oent, suffered from adenoids ; and 
590, or 15 per cent, from enlargement of 
the faucial tonsils ; 420, or 10*8 per cent, 
from defective hearing ; and 65 per cent, 
were treated. 

Of isolated examinations for the presence 
of adenoids made in Sweden before 1905 
may be mentioned one in 1894. when Dr. 
Stangenberg examined some 2, 500 children, 
10 per cent of whom suffered horn ade- 
noids. Among the 2,500 there were 1,250 
Board-school children, in whom the per- 
centage of adenoids was as high as 16 per 
cent, the High-school children being 
better off. 

In 1901 Dr. Floderus examined some 
900 Board-school children, all of seven or 
eight years of age. In them he found 170, 
or 18*78 per cent, with an upper tonsil so 
considerably enlarged that an immediate 
operation was found advisable ; and in 
another 170. such an enlargement of the 
tonsil that an operation was desirable ; in 
all, then, 340, or some 87 per cent. 

In a paper read in Section II. of the 
Second Congress on School Hygiene, by 
Dr. Frances Tvens, it is stated that out 
of 1,000 East London School children, 
nearly one-third had deficient hearing, 
and 74 per cent, of these cases were 
assoeiated with morbid conditions of th» 
throat 

Httgo Haoiliv. 
{To he conUnMd.) 



MODERN LANGUAGE WORK IN THE WEST RIDING. 



It has been thought that a paper on 
Modem Language Work in tiie West 
Biding might prove of interest to members 
of this Association, as this is a period of 
great activity in that subject, and much 
ia being done to improve the effidenoy of 



the work. Lest, however, the title of thi» 
paper should be misleading, I had better 
state at once that it is proposed only to 
treat of Modem Language work in the- 
administrative area of the West Riding. 
This, therefore, excludes the six county 
2—2 



30 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



bonmghi — Leeds, Bradford, Sheffield, 
Rotherhmm, Halifax, and Haddersfield — 
except in 80 far as Modem Language work 
in these towns is carried on nnder the 
auspices of the West Biding, or in con- 
nexion with it 

A large part of the Modem Language 
work which is abont to be described is due 
to the energy and initiative of Bight Hon. 
A. H. D. Aoland, whom the West Biding 
was fortunate enough to have as Chairman 
of the Higher Education Sub-Oommittee 
for some years, and under his enlightened 
guidance, and with the sympathy and 
support of Mr. A. Y, Houghton, Chief 
Inspector for Secondary Schools to the 
West Biding County Council, considerable 
progress has been made during the past 
few years. 

As may be expected, there is very little 
Modem Language work in the elementary 
schools. There is, however, a little in 
three districts — Ilkley, Goole, and Don- 
caster; but the West Biding Education 
Committee does not encourage the teach- 
ing of this subject in elementary schools, 
and refuses to recognise it except nnder 
very special circumstances. From the 
point of view of the secondary school, to 
which many elementary school children 
come at an early age, this attitude of the 
Education Committee is a great advantage, 
and when the children come firom the 
elementary schools, they are able to begin 
their Modem Language work on the lines 
of the particular school they attend, and 
have continuous instroction on the same 
lines throughout their school course. 

The work in the secondary schools 
varies very much, but the variations are 
chiefly in the degree in which the Direct 
Method is adopted, and are caused in 
many cases by the command of the 
individual teacher over conversational 
French or German. This command over 
the spoken language is now far more 
general in the West Biding than it was 
even three years ago, and the children are 
trained in conversation, as well as in other 
branches of the language. In many of the 
schools phonetics are taught, and here. 



indeed, they are very necessary, as a great 
deal of local accent has to be abandoned 
before even an approach to a fair foreign 
accent is possible. In some schools, how- 
ever, the teachers are themselves not 
trained in phonetics, and this groundwork 
of pronunciation has, therefore, in these 
eases to be omitted. Where phonetics 
are used, they are, as a rale, used entirely 
for one term at least, and during the 
course of the second term the transition 
to the ordinary spelling is made. This 
transition takes place without any difficulty 
when treated systematically, and new words 
at this stage are first introduced by means 
of phonetics. In the later stages constant 
reference is made to phonetics, and thus 
mistakes in pronunciation are checked 
immediately. In one or two schools use 
is made of the phonograph as an aid to 
pronunciation, but this is not yet generaL 
Songs and recitations are freely used in 
the schools, especially in the junior forms, 
where also the children are encouraged to 
act stories they may have been reading. 
This they delight in doing — the boys quite 
as much as the girls, if not even more ! 
The vexed question of translation, of which 
the members of this Association have read 
so much the last few months in the pages of 
MoDMiiK Lamottaoi Tbaohino, is a vexed 
question in the schools in the West Biding 
as well as elsewhere. In most cases, the 
junior forms are taught with the minimum 
of translation possible, but at the same 
time it is recognized that a fetish must 
not be made of 'no-translation, 'and that 
time must not be wasted in trying to 
reach the meaning of words through the 
medium of the foreign language alone. 
The difficulty, of course, lies in seizing 
the exact point at which the English 
equivalent should be given. Where, to 
my mind, some of the translators fall 
short, is in the fact that, having given the 
English word, they rest content, and do 
not proceed to use the new foreign word 
so that the foreign word, as such, becomes 
part of the content of the pupil's mind, 
and not the foreign word with the English 
wordy so to speak, beside it always. If 



MODERN LANGUAGE WORK IN THE WEST RIDING 21 



tlu8 point were more generally observed, 
it seems to me that a good nse might be 
made of judicious translation at this 
stage. I do not mean translation of text- 
books — far from it 1— bat translation of 
occasional words or phrases, when there 
is likely to be any obscority. In the 
higher forms of some of the schools regular 
translation from and into the foreign 
tongue is used, and this exercise, at a 
later stagt, is, to my mind, moet useM 
in acquiring precision and accuracy in the 
comprehension and selection of word, 
phrase, and expression. At an early 
stage, the pupils can hardly be expected 
to haye a sufficiently large vocabultfy for 
this kind of work, which, if used then, 
would probably degenerate into mere 
dictionary work, and guesswork or chance 
as to the particular word choeen. What 
the educational value of such work — ^if it 
is possible to give the name of ' work ' to 
it — ^may be, where the number of mistakes 
would probably outweigh the amount of 
correct work, I cannot conceive. That I 
am on thorny ground I am well aware, 
and I cannot expect that my views, as 
here expressed, will entirely agree with 
those of other members present How- 
ever, as this paper is not only, or even 
principally, concerned with the question 
of translation, I will return to the general 
work in the secondary schools. In the 
higher forms correspondence with a 
French boy or girl is encouraged in many 
oases, and in one girls' school in particular 
a very brisk correspondence has now been 
carried on for some years between several 
of the pupils and some French girls ; and 
interest in this, which was great at the 
beginning, appears to increase as time 
goes on. In these higher forms the pupils 
are inteoduced to some of the masterpieces 
of French literature, and have an oppor- 
tunity of becoming acquainted, to some 
small degree, with some of the best 
classical authors. An attempt u made to 
arooae their interest in this, so that they 
may continue to read when their school- 
days are over. The West Riding Educa- 
tion Committee has helped in this matter 



by having a certain niunber of French 
books placed in its circulating library for 
schools. This library consists mainly of 
English books, and a selection made, as 
£ar as possible, in accordance with the 
request of each school, is sent down to the 
schools, the books being returned and 
changed once a year. Among these are a 
few French books, which have been eagerly 
read in some of the schools. 

The average amount of time given to 
the Modem Language work is one period 
a day of forty to forty-five minutes in the 
lowest and perhaps tiie two lowest forms, 
reduced in the higher forms to three or 
four periods a week. 

There is, however, one point to be 
noticed with regard to Modem Language 
work in these schools — a point which will 
hardly astonish the members of this 
Association, all the more so as their 
attention is specially drawn to it this 
year by Mr. Milner-Barry. I refer to the 
fact that there is very little German work. 
In the larger schools of the West Biding 
some German is taught, but the proportion 
of German to French is very small, and in 
the smaller schools where only one language 
is taken that language is invariably 
French. That this should be so in such a 
commercial county as Yorkshire is astonish- 
ing, but the amoimt of German taught in 
the county is decreasing rather than in- 
creasing. The teachers, then, in the 
West Biding are mainly qualified to teach 
French only, and the greater part of my 
remarks on the work in the secondary 
schools refer to the teaching of French. 
In all the schools there are English 
teachers, and in some there is a foreigner 
as well. In the larger schools the foreign 
teacher is a member of the staff; in the 
smaller schools which have one, the 
foreigner is a visiting teacher. 

Three years ago the Education Com- 
mittee appointed several peripatetio 
teachers for different subjects, one for 
Modem Languages. Part of the work 
of the peripatetic teacher consists in 
supervising and organizing the Modem 
Language work in the secondary schools 



22 



MODERN LANQUAGE TEACHINa 



in the West Riding. The Tieite have 
proved helpful in many wmys. Leaeoneare 
sometinies given by the peripatetic teacher 
in the preeeuoe of the regular teacher, and 
sometimes she listens to lessons, which are 
afterwards discussed. A certain number 
of schools are visited regularly once, or 
perhaps twice, a week for periods varying 
in length from one term to two years, 
according to their needs, and one day in 
the week is set apart for occasional visits 
to schools which were formerly visited 
regularly, or for special visits to schools 
asking for advice on a certain point. In 
this way a wide area is covered, secondary 
schools of all kinds being visited — ^mized 
schools, boys' schools, or girls' schools. 
The teachers engaged in these schools are 
sympathetic to work with, and welcome 
suggestions which may be given. In 
Mr. Gloudesley Brereton's little book on 
'The Teaching of Modem Languages,' 
published two or three years ago, he says, 
speaking of the advisability of improving 
the work by insisting on certain general 
principles of Modem Language teaching 
in the schools: 'To ensure the carrying 
out of such a policy, it would be advisable 
to adopt the suggestion of Professor 
Rippmann, and appoint an Inspector of 
Modem Languages, who would not only 
see that the main principles insisted on 
were observed, but would also act as 
master of method to the teachers.' This 
idea is carried out in the system of 
peripatetic teachers adopted by the West 
Biding. Only two other counties, Devon 
and Surrey, have any peripatetic teachers 
of Modem Languages, those in other 
counties being chiefly for domestic subjects, 
art, or handwork, and these teachers are 
visiting rather than what is here under- 
stood by peripatetic teachers. In Surrey 
the system is being discouraged, but in 
Devon it appears to be working as in the 
West Biding. 

Turning from the secondary schools to 
technical and evening schools, we find 
great activity. There are many centres 
at which evening classes are held, thirty- 
two of which provide instraotion in 



Modem Languages, besides several Frendi 
and (German circles. The work is divided 
into three stages — elementary, inter- 
mediate, and advanced, and arrangements 
are made when required for commercial 
dasses. The elementary stage consists 
chiefly of oral teaching, with a view to 
training the students to speak fluently 
and naturally. Special attention is given 
at this stage to pronunciation, reading, 
dictation, and conversation ; simple con- 
tinuous composition is introduced, and 
passages of prose and poetry are com- 
mitted to memory. Conversation lessons 
on the foreign country, its life and 
customs, are given, as well as on subjects 
connected with the reading-book. The 
intermediate stage continues on the lines 
of the elementary stage, but the work is 
naturally more advanced, and the foreign 
tongue is used more as the medium of 
instraction. In the advanced stage, the 
foreign language is used almost, if not 
quite, exclusively, the grammar is revised 
and systematically extended, special 
periods of literature are chosen, authors 
studied, and passages learnt by heart. 
Original composition is used to a greater 
extent, and a little commercial work is 
introduced through translation of English 
business letters, conversation on foreign, 
commercial, and industrial life, reading of 
passages relating to commercial subjects, 
and so on. 

In all these stages great attention is 
paid to the acquisition of vocabulary, 
command over verbs, pronunciation, and 
fluency of speech. In the foreign circles 
topics dealing with the life and customs 
of the foreign country are discussed — the 
army, the stage, the language, education, 
industries, govemment, and so on. French 
is taken in nearly all these centres, Qerman 
in a few only. The total number of 
French classes of all stages is fifty-three, 
and of Gterman only twenty. Many of 
the students attending these classes show 
great eamestness in their work, and pass 
on to Modem Language courses at the 
Universities of Leeds and Sheffield, and 
in many caset spend some time abroad 



MODERN LANGUAGE WORK IN THE WEST RIDING 23 



mnd qualify themselves to beoome lan- 
gOAge teachers at a later date. Teachers 
of these eyening classes are registered by 
the comicil, bat before their registration 
for Modem Languages each teacher is 
interviewed in the language he wishes to 
teach, with a view to ascertaining his 
accent and his command of the language, 
as well as his methods. 

The West Riding is working strenuously 
to improve its teaching power, and many 
are the advantages offeied to teachers of 
Modem Languages. The scheme of 
sessional courses and grants-in-aid is a 
large one, and enthusiastio teachers have 
every opportunity of making themselves 
more proficient in their subject, and 
consequently of making their teaching 
more efficient. It must be remembered 
that many teachers of Modem Languages 
have not been specially trained in that 
•abject, but much praise is due to them 
for the way in which they are willing to 
attend classes after their day's work, or 
on a valuable free Saturday, in order that 
their work may be improved. A large 
proportion of the Modem Language work 
in the West Riding is directed towards 
assisting teachers in this matter, and there 
are now, in connexion with the West 
Riding, courses for teachers at the Univer- 
sitiee of Leeds and Sheffield. Two classes 
are held, running concurrently. The first 
•lass is in language (at Sheffield, language 
and literature), the standard aimed at 
being that of a B.A. of the University. 
The second class is restricted to phonetics 
and methods of teaching. At the end of 
these courses of two years, the teacher 
may obtain a diploma from the Univer- 
sities. This diploma course is now in its 
second year, though for some years pre- 
viously the Universities had held courses 
for teachers. As it was felt, however, 
that teachers came to these classes in- 
•afficiently prepared, it was decided, when 
arrangements for the diploma course were 
made, that a preparatory course should 
also be held. Last winter there was one 
class, snd this winter there are two, both 
in Frenoh, there not being sufficient 



candidates for German. The teachers 
attending these preparatory classes are 
mostly working in elementary schools, 
though there are many secondary teachers 
attending the diploma courses at the 
Universities. 

Grants-in-aid are given by the West 
Riding to teachers attending these 
sessional courses. For those within the 
adminiBtrative area a certain proportion 
of the fees, varying according to the 
amount of the fee, is paid, and railway 
fares are also paid. That teachers value 
these facilities may be gathered from the 
numbers attending these courses, and their 
anxiety to profit to the full. 

It has been felt, nevertheless, that theee 
courses leave one section of teachers un- 
touched. There are still a few in the 
West Riding who, while they have a 
sound grammatical knowledge of French, 
have never had any opportunity of speak- 
ing it. To meet their needs, a special 
conversation class has been arranged, and 
will begin in January. 

Besides the sessional courses, the Educa- 
tion Committee gives grants-in-aid during 
the summer holidays for holiday courses 
abroad. Courses at Grenoble, Tours, 
Caen, Boulogne, Neuwied, and Marburg 
have been attended by many teachers by 
means of these grants-in-aid, Boulogne 
having been the Frenoh centre selected 
for the last two years, Neuwied the year 
before last and Marburg last year for 
teachers of German. Applications for 
these grants-in-aid are very numerous, 
and teachers are tested as to their con- 
versational knowledge of French and 
German before the grants are awarded, as 
only those are sent who already have a 
fair conversational knowledge of the foreign 
language. Originally this test took the 
form of a short interview in the foreign 
tongue, but this was felt to be unsatis- 
factory. Consequently, for the last two 
years a preparatory course of six weeks 
has been held, with a view to giving the 
teachers opportunities of hearing French 
and (German, and of exercising themselves 
in the foreign language, and from those 



24 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



attending these olMtes a selection is made. 
From the very outset, however, those who 
are thoroughly profioient are excused 
attendance, and those who can neither 
speak nor understand are excluded, the 
rest being divided into small groups, in 
order that each individual may profit. 
In these dassee it has sometimes been 
found possible to give a very slight intro- 
duction to some masterpieces of literature ; 
for there is a lamentable lack of knowledge 
of the foreign literatures amongst many 
of these feachers. Hitherto their energies 
appear to have been concentrated on 
attaining the power of expressing them- 
selves in the foreign language, but it is 
obvious that the next step to be taken 
is to give them some opportunity of 
studying the literatures of French and 
German. Returning to the holiday courses 
abroad, it was very satisfactory to note 
that the standard of the applicants last year 
was considerably higher than in either of 
the two preceding years, and it was in 
consequence far more difficult to make a 
selection. About twenty were sent to the 
course at Boulogne, and six to Marburg. 
Careful boarding arrangements are made 
for the teachers attending these coursesi 
each teacher being placed in a family 
where there is no other English person, 
so that he may have the full benefit of his 
foreign surroundings. The West Biding 
appears to make more use of these holiday 
courses abroad than most other bodies, 
with the exception of Surrey, Hertford, 
and Kent, which aUo send a good propor- 
tion of their teachers to courses abroad. 

A new departure was made last year in 
connexion with holidays abroad. Instead 
of sending all the candidates to a holiday 
course, some of the best — those who had 
already made a thorough study of French 
language and literature— were allowed, if 
they wished, to spend a month in a 
French family recommended by the Oom- 
mittee. Eight teachers were allowed to 
go in this way to families in different 
parts of France, with successftd results. 
On their return from the foreign holiday, 
all these teachers were interviewed by the 



teacher of the preparatory daasesy in order 
that it might be seen how much they had 
benefited by their opportunities, and that 
any points raised might be discussed or 
suggestions made with regsrd to future 
years. The teachers were enthusiastio 
about their stay abroad, and the courses 
at Boulogne on French literature appeared 
particularly to have excited their interest 
The effect of theee courses is often plainly 
visible in the schools afterwards, the 
difference in accent and in teaching being 
marked in some cases. The mere fact of 
having been abroad, apart from the teach- 
ing, has opened the eyes and widened the 
minds of many in a beneficial way. 

For the last three years a holiday 
course has been held in Scarborough, under 
the auspices of the West Biding Education 
Oommittee. Two years ago Herr Walter, 
Direktor of the Musterschule in Frankfurt, 
gave a course on Methods of Modem 
Language Teaching. These lectures were 
much appreciated, and gave a visible 
impetus to the Modem Language work in 
the West Biding. Those teachers who 
had been present tried to carry out many 
of his suggesdons, and their work was 
improved and brightened in many ways. 

Beferring to the small amount of foreign 
reading done by some of the teachers in 
the West Biding, a step is now being 
taken to remedy this, by removing the 
difficulty of procuring books. It is pro- 
posed to have a circulating library of 
French and German classical and modem 
literature, especially for the use of teachers. 
This, it is hoped, will do something 
towards improving present conditions, and 
perhaps later it may be found possible to 
have courses in literature. At present it 
seems hardly possible to hold them, but 
it is hoped that in time such courses 
may be arranged. The reproach against 
the new method, that children are trained 
to chatter French and German, but do not 
come into contact with the foreign mind, 
will be justified as long as we neglect to 
train our teachers thoroughly in literature 
as well as in conversation. It was gratify- 
ing to find how much the literature 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 



25 



ooorses at Boulogne last year had been 
apiffedated, and they stimalated in the 
teachers who heard them a desire for a 
more intimate knowledge of the foreign 
literature. This desire it behoves ns to 
foster, and to give them the means of 
satisfying, and in this way we may hope 
to see the Modem Language work improve 
on the literary as well as on the linguistio 
side. 

Glancing over the Modem Langoage 
work in the West Riding as a whole, it 
is obvious that great strides have been 
made of recent years, and it was pleasing 



to find that the standard of work in 
schools asking for the services of the 
peripatetic teacher last September was 
considerably higher than in past years. 
The work is now far more in the hands of 
specialists, and the standard of the 
spedalists is improving. The teachers 
themselves show a laudable desire to derive 
as much benefit as possible firom the 
opportunities the Education Gonunittee 
so generously gives them, and the money 
spent on improving the work can in no 
way be said to have been wasted. 

0. W. Matthswb. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 



A MSITIKO of the General Gommittee 
was held at Queen's GoUege, London, on 
Tuesday, January 7» immediately before 
the Annual General Meeting. 

Present: Messrs. SomervUle (chair), 
Allpress, Dr. Braimholtz, Messrs. Brere- 
ton, Kirkman, Lipscomb, Milner-fiany, 
Miss Morley, Mr. Payen-Payne, Miss 
Purdie, Professors Rippmann, Moore Smith, 
Mias Shearson, Mr. Storr, Mr. Twentyman, 
and the Hon. Secretary. 

The report and balance-sheet for 1907 
were considered and passed. 

The subjoined report was received from 
the Publications Subcommittee. After 
some discussion it was resolved that it 
should be submitted to the General Meet- 
ing for preliminary consideration, and 
referred to the incoming General Gom- 
mittee. The subcommittee on the pro- 
l>oeed Educational Gongress reported that 
they had met representatives of the 
Geographical, Historical, and English 
Associations and discussed the question 
with them, a representative of the Classical 
Association being ako present This 
matter was also referred to the inconung 
General Gommittee. 

The Gonmiittee then considered a ques- 
tion which had been referred to it by the 
Gommittee on Training— namely, whether 
that Gommittee should inquire into and 
report on the methods of teaching Modem 



Languages in schools. It was resolved as 
a preliminary step that a report on the 
subject, dravm up by another Association, 
should be submitted to the Training Gom- 
mittee. 

The following thirty-one new members 
were elected : 

Miss B. E. Allpress, 4, Queenswood 
Boad, Forest Hill, S.E. 

Miss H. Bailey, High School. Maccles- 
field. 

E. Bensly, M.A., University Gollege 
Aberystwytii. 

£. S. Brown, National Institute, Quito, 
South America. 

Miss J. L. Goates, HoUoway Gollege, 
Englefield Green, Surrey. 

Miss A. Gomyn, High School, Bolton. 

Miss A. J. Gooper, Oxford Delegacy for 
Training of Secondary Teachers. 

W. St. J. Gother, Upholland Grammar 
School, Orrell, Lanes. 

A. Graig, M.A., Rutherford GoUego, 
Newcastle-on-T^e. 

H. H. Gurtis, High School, Montreal ; 
Director of French in Montreal Public 
Schools. 

A. F. Ericsson, J.P., Mayfield, Jesmond, 
Newcastle-on-I^e. 

Miss Fletcher, B.A., St. Stephen's 
High School, Glewer, Windsor. 

Miss M. Franklin, Wycombe Abbey 
School, Bucks. 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Mi« B. Hablitsel, Manor Mount Secon- 
dary School, S.E. 

A. E. Johnson, M.A., Royal Grammar 
School, Newcastle-on-Tyne. [fract. 

Miss E. A. Locke, High School. Ponte- 

D. B. Macleod, Strand School, King's 
College, W.G. [fract 

Miss K Martin, High School, Ponte- 

Miss K M. Nerontsos, Training College 
for Women, Cambridge. 

H. Nicholson, B.A., Grammar School, 
Manchester. 

W. I. Price, Geelong College, Geelong, 
Victoria. 

Miss D. H. G. Reeve, B.A., Girls' 
Grammar School, Bradford, Yorks. 

Miss A. Rushton, Grassendale, South- 
boume-on-Sea. 

Miss L. Smith. LL.A., Cockbom High 
School, Leeds. 

A. T. Stallworthy,M.A.,Royal Grammar 
School, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

Miss C. L. Thomson, Temple Hoose, 
Temple Avenue, KG. 

Miss M. Tweedie, M.A., Edinburgh 
Ladies' College, Edinburgh. 

H. F. F. Yarley. Grammar School, 
Morpeth. 

Miss M. Walsh, The Laurels, Staple- 
grove Road, Taunton. 

Miss H. White, High School, Chapel 
Allerton, Leeds. 

J. P. Wilson, B.A., L.-^-L., 4, Holmes- 
dale Gardens, Hastings. 

Heport qf Fuhlieaiions SvheammiUu. 

The Publications Subconunittee met at 
the Board of Education Library on Satur- 
day, December 7, to receive a report on 
the position and prospects of the Modem 
Language Be/view from the Editor. 

Present: Dr. Heath (in the chair), 
Messrs. Bridge, Fiedler, Greg, Rippmann, 
Robertson, and Twentyman. 

The deficit on the working for the year 
ending Cctober 11, 1907, was £88 2s. Id., 
which is a sensible improvement on the 
first year's result. There has also been a 
slight increase in the sales effected. The 
financial outlook may therefore be re- 
garded as hopefuL 



The chief diflicolty experienced by the 
Editor consists in the amoimt of excellent 
material which is placed at his disposal 
by contributors. The number of papers 
sent in which are worthy of publication is 
so great that the Editor feels that an 
increase in the size of the magazine is 
imperative if justice is to be done to 
English scholarship. He is so strongly 
convinced of this that he is not prepared 
to face the responsibilities of editorship 
nnless the review is considerably enlarged. 
Probably it ought to be doubled in size — 
f.0., increased to about 200 pages a 
number. 

Tliis will involve some increase (though 
not a proportionate increase) in the price, 
and, this being so, it is clear that the 
Modem Language Association will not be 
in a position to supply a copy to each 
member unless the present subscription to 
the Association is increased, a step which 
is hardly desirable. On the other hand, 
it would be regrettable if the Association 
were wholly to sever its connexion with 
the Review. The Subcommittee therefore 
suggest that the Association might change 
its method of support. 

They recommend : 

1. That the Modem Language Associa- 
tion should be responsible in its corporate 
capacity for a guarantee of not less than 
£60 per annum. 

2. That the Review should be supplied 
to such members of the Modem Language 
Association as may desire it at a price 
considerably lower than the published 
price. 

Though it is no part of th'^ ^uty of the 
Subcommittee to consider any question 
but that of the best method of carrying on 
the Review, they venture to point out 
that this arrangement might render poe- 
sible some reduction in the subscription to 
the Association. 



The second meeting of the Committee 
on Training was held at Queen's College, 
Harley Street, W., on Monday, January 6, 
the Yice-Chanoellor of Cambridge being 
in the chair. 



REVIEWS 



27 



REVIEWS. 



-D 



The Plae$ of the Mather-Tongue in National 
JBdtuxUion. Pp. S4. Price Is. The 
Qrowih €f JSnglish. Pp. 199. Price 
Ss. 6d. Both by H. C. Wyld. Pub- 
liehed by John Murray. 
Plt>fea8or Wyld is at pains in the first of 
these works to insist on the necessity for 
the systematio study of English in schools 
and training-colleges. In The Orototh qf 
English he giyes us a manual in which he 
exemplifies the methods he wishes to see 
generally adopted. These differ consider- 
ably from those commonly in vogue where 
.^ ^ historical grammar is taught, for Professor 
Wyld takes the modem spoken language 
as his starting-point He advocates, as a 
b^^inning, a careful examination by the 
student of his own pronunciation, phrase- 
ology, and vocabulary. He is, by first- 
hand observation, to classify the soimds he 
uses, and to compare them with those 
employed by his companions and teachers. 
In this way he will become conscious of 
the scientific explanation of many of the 
commoner phonetic laws, and will realize 
how languages grow, develop, and change. 
From the elementary investigation of the 
phenomena which he can observe for him- 
self the student is to pass to the history 
proper of the language— to English sound - 
changes in the past, which can be com- 
pared with those which are still in process ; 
to the development of our vocabulary, the 
history of our inflexions, the reason for 
inconsistencies in our 8X>elling. Finally, 
this elementary study may conclude by 
pointing out to the beginner the relation- 
ships which exist between various lan- 
guages and groups of languages, — ^by 
showing him how the modem science of 
comparative philology has grown up. 

Professor Wyld's plea for the scientific 
study of En^^h is one which will be 
endorsed by all serious teachers of the 
subject, most of whom will surely agree 
with him that here, as elsewhere, the right 
method is to proceed from the known to 
the unknown. No one can read The 



Chrowih of Bnglieh without canying away 
the conviction that Professor Wyld's 
theories ars the result of practical teaching 
experience. There is no doubt that his 
own students have had their interest 
aroused and stimulated by the enthusiasm 
and alertness which make his book as 
different as possible from older, dry-as- 
dust linguistic manuals. But we cannot 
help feeling that at times he might leara 
something of order and arrangement from 
his despised predecessors. For instance, 
the chapter on ' The Sounds of English ' is 
bewildering, and'We should be glad if the 
consonants and vowels could somehow be 
grouped together after the separate sounds 
have been examined. The chapter on 
'English Inflexions' is unsatisfactorily 
brief. It is difficult to find the right 
mean between superfluous detail and 
glaring omissions; but we do not think 
that Professor Wyld is altogether suocess- 
ftd in his search. Nor are his definitions 
always adequate. * By Dialect is simply 
meant a way of speaking ' is neither clear 
nor satisfactory as an explanation. Again, 
it is surely reasonable to expect that in a 
work of this kind there shall be an index 
of the subjects treated. We think, too, 
that in a book intended for students it is 
wise to avoid criticisms such as that which 
occurs in the second paragraph on p. 191 
of The Growth qf English; while the 
implied sneer at the Modem Language 
Association at the top of p. 2 in the pam- 
phlet is both discourteous and uiijust. 
Finally, we think it a pity that a professor 
of English language permits himself to 
write in so slovenly a fashion as frequently 
happens in the books under review. Split 
infinitives {e,g,, 'to first trace,' p. 194; 
'to, as it were, pronounce mentally, 'p. 28), 
'and which,' 'and who,' disregard of 
tense sequence, lapses in grammar — (' it is 
found that each pronounce certain sounds,' 
p. 50 ; ' which women avoid, or formerly 
did so,* p. 68 ; ' each generation aeguiree 
. . . and in their turn iransmU,' etc. 



28 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



p. 196) are solecisms which ought to be 
avoided by a teacher who writes as one 
haying authority. 

Wii^ these exceptions, we heartily 
reoommend Professor Wyld's writings to 
those who are anxious that the mother- 
tongue shall take its rightful position in 
national education. 

The Story qf English Literature. Vol I. : 
The Elizabethan Period. By E. W. 
Edmukds, M.A. Pp. 888. Price 8s. 6d, 
John Murray. 
JUadinfft in English Literature. Selected 
by £. W. £dmukd8, M.A., and F. 
Sfoonxb, B. a. Junior Course, pp. 248, 
2s. 6d. ; Intermediate Course, pp. 248, 
2s. 6d. ; Senior Course, pp. 380, 3s. 6d. 
John Murray. 

When completed, this series will consist 
of twelve volumes. The story of English 
literature will be told in three volumes, 
and each of these will be illustrated by 
three distinct sets of readings. Messrs. 
Edmunds and Spooner believe that the 
study of literature illustrates the growth 
of a people's insight into ' the beauty and 
the mystery of life and nature,' and that 
it implies a study of movements, ideas, 
and ideals, as well as of the men who have 
given memorable expression to them. The 
conception is a lofty one, and the authors 
do not lose sight of their ideaL They 
ought to succeed in helping their pupils 
to perceive in what they read * that which 
is permanent in thought and feeling.' 
They certainly represent their * great per- 
sonages 'as living men. The criticism is 
not ambitious, and it contains nothing 
very new, but it is almost always sound. 
The accounts of the growth of prose, the 
development of the drama, and the ex- 
periments in poetry, are clear and interest- 
ing ; while the notes at the end of the 
book make it possible to include all neces- 
sary explanations without overloading the 
text. We strongly reoommend The Story 
of English Literature as a reference-book 
for schools and training-colleges. It gives 
facts intelligently and interestingly ; while 
the authors never forget that, in studying 



literature, facts are of importance only in 
so fiftr as they illustrate the great books 
which are 'the permanent voice' of a 
people. The iStory has a merit not oommon 
in text- books of literature. It does not 
exalt itself at the expense of its subject ; 
its aim is to send students direct to the 
fountain of living waters. Our only regret 
is that the authors date the beginning of 
modem literature as late as the year 1558. 
We wish the Story could have gone back 
several centuries for its starting-point. 

The volumes of Readings ought to be 
used side by side with The Story qf English 
Literature, The extracts are well chosen 
and not hackneyed; they illustrate the 
work of the great writers, and are usually 
* sufficiently long and complete to enable a 
student to form a fair estimate of their 
authors.' 

The series supplies a real want, and 
should be widely used by teachers, who 
have long desired something of the kind 
at a price within the means of the ordinary 
student. 

Waterloo, from Les Mis&ables, By V. 
Hugo, edited by A. Babb^rb. London : 
Hachette, 1907. Pp. 64 (81 pp. text, 
9 pp. vocab., 18 pp. sentences for re- 
translation). Price 4d. 

Well printed on good |>ai)er, and bound 
in limp cloth ; a cheap edition. We 
question the value of the sentences for 
retranslation : 'The farm formed our 
point of support'; 'The soldiers stood 
with arms ordered '; ' The pieces of 
ordnance were thundering all at the same 
time'; *We could hear the cavalry 
coming up at full trot and the clanging of 
their swords.' This sort of thing en- 
courages a vicious English style, what- 
ever it may do for French. 

Le Doeteur Mathdus. By Erokhakk- 
Ohatriak, adapted by W. P. Fullxr. 
London: Methuen, 1907. Pp. 77 
(48 pp. text, 21 pp. vocab.). Price Is. 

V£quipage de la Belle-Nivemaise. Bv 
Alpuonsx Daudxt. adapted by T. R. N. 
Cbofts. Pp. 80 (54 pp. text, 18 vocab.). 
Methuen, 1907. Price Is. 

Simplified French texts for pupils who 
have been learning for about a year or 



EEVIEW8 



29 



eighteen months. We do not fancy the 
story of Dr. Mathto's wanderings will 
appeal rery much to young readers; it 
nerer grips. La Belle Ninemaiae^ written 
for Dandet's little son, aged ten, and 
though much abbreviated, altered very 
slightly in this version, is foil of inoident 
The vocabulary is more diflSoult than that 
of MaMus, but this is likely to be for- 
gotten in the dharm of the style and 
interest of the narrative. 

La Mare wu DidMe, By GxoBOi Sahd, 
edited, with inteoduction, by Maboabkt 
Pbabi. Blackie's Modem Language 
Series. Pp. 126 (78 pp. text, 14 pp. 
notes, 27 pp. vooab.). rrioe 1& 6d. 

A fidrly attractive edition of this charm- 
ing story. There seems to be no quality 
of distinction about the notes such as to 
justify their inclusion. 

French Speech and Spelling: AFirstOuide 
to French Pronunciatum. By 8. A. 
Richards. London: Dent, 1907. 
Price 8d. 

The daily increasing number of teachers 
who use phonetic script will welcome this 
book with avidity. It supplies a long-felt 
need, for so fiur, to the beet of our know- 
ledge, to get for his class's practice the 



material here supplied the teacher of 
French has had to have recourse to books 
and pamphlets published abroadr— excel- 
lent in their way, but far less convenient 
The scope of the book is best described by 
quoting from a preface contributed by 
Professor Rippmann : ' Boys and girls 
need not be troubled with much theory 
[of phonetics], nor is there any good 
reason why they should know many 
technical terms; but it is undoubtedly 
usefol for them to have a little book for 
the purpose of practising and revising such 
sounds of the foreign language as are likely 
to prove difficult. It is true that the 
teacher can dictate such exerdses; but 
this always entaiU some waste of time, 
and necessitates the correcting of what the 
pupil has written. Exercises for drill in 
the foreign sounds are offered in the first 
part of this little book. ... In the 
second part attention is drawn to the way 
in which the conventional spelling of 
French differs from the phonetic. . . . 
The third part contains some prose and 
verse passages to show how the sounds 
appear in connected speech. A number of 
exercises have been added for purposes of 
revision, and to stimulate the pupils to 
apply their knowledge.' 



COEEESPONDENCE. 



LE LYO^ FRAKgAIS. 

L'abticlx sur 'Le Lyo^ lyan^ais' qu'a 
public le dernier num^ de M,L,T, 
aurait M k pen prds exact s'il avait paru 
aux environs de 1881. Je me permets de 
rectifier k I'usage de vosleoteuis les erreurs 
qu'il rsnfermek 

Le censeur exeroe dans le lyo^ une sur- 
▼eillanoe toute mat^elle, et les professeurs 
ne reinvent pas de lui au point de vue 
enseignement 

Oelui qui est oharg6 de la caiMe de 
I'dtablisBement s'appelle ' Eoonome.' 

Les professeura des classes pr^paratoiree 
DA sent pas ntossainemtnt bachelien; 



ceux des classes ^l^mentaires ne sont pas 
licenci^ ils passent un examen special, 
n n'y a pas d'agr^gation de chimie, nuds 
une agr^tion de physique qui comprend 
un programme de chimie. 

Les eateries de lyc^ ont ^t6 abolies 
void bientdt trente ans. II pent y avoir 
dans un lyo^ quelconque des professeurs 
de six classes diff^rentes. Ceux qui ne 
sont pas agr^g^ portent le nom de 
*Ohargte de Cours,' et sont aussi divisds 
en six classes. 

Les agr^g^ de province resoivent en 
premiere classe 6,700 francs, en sixitoe 
classe 8,700. Ceux qui rodent k Paris, 
8,000 en premi&re, et 5,600 en slzitee. 



30 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Let oharg^ de ooun ont en province de 
2,800 k 4,800 ; k Paru de 4,600 k 6,000. 

Le nombre dee heures de olaise varie 
tnivant lee eneeignemcnta, et ne repr^eente 
qu'one faible partie da travail impoe^ aoz 
profeaseon. 

Lee repetitions sont tr^e pea nombreaaes, 
lear priz fort variable. Dix francs est on 
maximnm qui n'est atteint qulk Bans. 

Les maitres d'^tade sont licenci^s on 
bacheliers. Les premiers gagnentde 2,500 
k 8.700; les seoonds de 1,900 k 8,000 
francs. 

Tout le personnel est astreint k aban- 
donner k I'^tat le premier donzi^me de 
tout traitement on augmentation, pais on 
vingtitoie par an. La retraite est possible 
k 60 ans si Ton a an moins 80 ans de 
services. 

Le priz de la pension varie snivant les 
classes et le proviseor ne s'arrange pas avec 
les parents, les priz ^tant fiz^s par I'^tat 

Un temps viendra peut-Stre oil les 
decorations se donneront dds le beroeau, 
mais le merite de nos eidves ne leur a pas 
encore valu de oes distinctions honori- 
fiques. 

Le roolement de tamboar est fait par le 
concierge on on domestique ; r^pithete de 
' reglementaire ' m'etait inoonnue, oomme 
k mes collies d'ailleurs. 

H. ROUDIL. 

LES PONTES D'AUJOURD'HUL 

The interesting article on 'Ezamina- 
tions ' which appeared in yoor last number, 
signed M^jor do SansgSne, contains some 
remarks on an anthology of contemporary 
French poetry called Lea PoUn d^Au- 
j<mrd*hui which seem to me rather unfair, 
and calculated to give a very wrong im- 
pression of the contents of the volume. 
In the first place, to stigmatize the book 
as a * yellow-back ' is surely somewhat 
ftitile, seeing that most French books are 
boand in paper (a good thing, by the way, 
for readers with short porsee and long 
appetites) ; and surely there is nothing 
specially demoralizing aboat the colour 
yellow, even though, for some unacoonnt- 



able reason, the baser press of America is 
branded with the epithet. But this is a 
trifle. What ia more important is that 
the author of the article uses language 
calculated to suggest that Les PoUeg 
dTAtfiourd^hui is a volume of a very 
objectionable character. So far is this 
from being the case, that there are very 
few pieces in the book the subject or lan- 
guage of which makes them likely to do 
any harm to the morals of young men and 
women. The great migority are perfectly 
harmless and decorous, and even the few 
which are unsuitable for reading aloud in 
a mized assembly do not appear to me to 
deserve the very strong epithet which 
Major de SansgSne employs. Argument 
on such a matter as this would be of little 
use, and I do not propose to attempt it ; 
I prefer to leave it to your readers to 
ezamine the volume and decide for them* 
selves whether the epithet I have alluded 
to is justified. 

When he speaks of the language of 
many of these poets as being incompre- 
hensible even to most Frenchmen, cor 
author is on rather safer ground ; but 
even here he is scarcely fair. He quotes 
a little poem by Mallarm^, and describes 
it as being ' not by any means the worst 
in the book.' It is not quite dear whether 
he is referring to the morality or the 
diction of the lines. If the first is in 
question, I must leave the matter to be 
decided by those who can understand the 
verses ; if the second, it ia only fair to 
point out that Mallarme is certainly the 
most incomprehensible of the poets repre- 
sented in the volume, and that if the poem 
quoted ia not quite the worst in point of 
intelligibility, there are very few indeed 
which are as bad, while many are as easy 
to understand as Lamartine or Victor 
Hugo. 

I do not wish, however, to take up the 
cudgels on behalf of the Central Welsh 
Board for choosing this volume for ez* 
amination purposes. Many of these poets 
undoubtedly write in a language which to 
an Englishman, at least, is quite as un- 
recognizable as French. They use strange 



FSOM HEBE AND THEBE 



31 



words in strmnge tenaefl, and anpply their 
wants with neologisms when Littr6 fSuls 
them. Nor does their general tone make 
them particnUrly suitable for the reading 
of young men and women. They are 
filled by a languid and gentle melancholy ; 
their poems are penraded with a languorous 
•utumnal feeling, and a soent of dead 
leaves and &ded flowers exhales from 
their pages. There is no inspiring thought, 
no strong or yirile emotion, to be met 
within these covers. There is much dainty 
and delioate writing, much fine sense of 
form, much exquisite tracery of words, 
much of that suggestiveness by means of 
a single metaphor or a few choice phrases, 
which is one of the leading characteristics 
of the symbolist school ; but there is 



nothing which can be called great poetry, 
little, probably, that will live, little that 
is of wide human interest, or that will 
appeal to any but the lover of the by-ways 
of literature. The selection of the volume 
by the Central Welsh Board may serve as 
a warning to show us to what strange 
panes examining bodies are brought when 
they attach too great importance to trans- 
lation. The symbolist poets are difficult, 
perhaps impossible, to translate ; hence 
they are admirably suited for the pur- 
poses of authorities who regard the power 
to translate as the best test of mental 
ability and of a knowledge of French. I 
need not enlaige upon the moral of 
this. 

G. F. Bbioox. 



FROM HERE AND THERE. 



Not for the first time do we regret that the 
space at our disposal is so limited. We 
should have been glad to issue full reports 
of the discussions at the Annual Meeting 
in this number ; we must ask the readers 
of MoDXKN Lanouaox Txaohino to be 
patient, especially as by bringing the 
reports later we are able to submit them 
to the speakers for revision. 

14 14 14 

DuNDKX Uniybbsitt Collsos.— Mr. 
George Soutar, M.A., D.Litt, has been 
appointed by the St. Andrews University 
Court to the Lectureship in English 
Literature, in succession to the late Mr. 
H. B. Baildon. 

Tik % % 

LovDOV UNiVEBSiTy.— The fifth Holi- 
day Course for foreigners, arranged by the 
University, will last from July 20 to 
August 14. The general arrangements 
will be as last year. The untimely death 
of Professor ^U Griffin removes from the 
staff one who had made many friends, and 
whose lectures had contributed greatly to 



the success of the course. His place will 
be taken by Professor William H. Hudson, 
whose wide experience renders him par- 
ticularly well suited for this work. 

Last year it was found impossible to 
accept as students all who applied, and 
intending students should therefore send 
in their applications in good time, as 
again the number of students will be 
strictly limited. The detailed programme 
will be issued in February. For this 
and all other particulars application should 
be made to The Rtgistrar of the ExUnsian 
Boards University of London^ South Ken- 
rinffton, S, W„ the words IHredor of the 
Holiday Course being added in the left 
top comer. 

14 14 14 

Oxford, Maodalsn Collxox.— Mr. 
a F. T. Brooke, B.A.. B.Litt, of St 
John's College, has been elected to a 
senior demyship. Mr. Brooke, who was 
a Rhodes Scholar, U.S. A., was placed in 
the first class in the Honour School of 
English Language and Literature in 1906. 
He has made a special study of the 
Shakespearean Apocrypha, and he pro- 



32 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



poaee to cany on reflearoh in Middle 
l ^iglinh and Elizftbetlian literatore. 

% % % 

OXTOBD, SOMEBVILLX C0LLX0X.^Mia8 

Helen Darbiehiro hae been appointed 
l^iglUK tutor, in succesaion to Miai 
SheaTyn, who haa been appointed Warden 
of Aahbnme Honae, Mancheater. 

% % % 

St/Awdbews Uhivirsity. — Mr. Georg 
Schaafia, Fh.D., haa been appointed to the 
Leotareehip in German Language and 
Literature and Teutonic Philology in 
the United College. Dr. SchaaSa ia at 
preaent aaaiBtant to Professor Kuno Meyer 
in the German Department of the Uniyer- 
aity of Liverpool 

% % % 

Shxtfikld Univkksitt.— Mr. Julius 
Frennd, MA., Ph.D., Lecturer in German 
Language and Literature, University of 
8t Andrews, haa been appointed Professor 
of German. 

% % % 

Mr. W. Bbaid Tatlob has been 
appointed English master in Greenock 
Academy. 

% % % 

We have agiin to thank Mr. Garter, the 
head maater of the Whitechapel Founda- 
tion School, Mr. Robert, the aenior 
French master, and all others concerned, 
for a deli^tful 'Modern Language' 
evening. This time the programme con- 
sisted of a spirited rendering of a scene 
from Moratin's Xa C<nnedia nuevcij and of 
a remarkably good performance of Moliire'a 
MicUcin vMlgri lui, interspersed with very 
well chosen and capitally rendered French 
songs. Such work is its own reward ; at 
the same time, it is an eloquent object- 
lesson of what the Reform Method, well 
handled, oan bring about, and it is a 
great pleasure for those who are privileged 
to look on. We offer our best wishes for 
continued progress to the masters and 



the boya of the Whitechapel Foundation 
SohooL 

% % % 

We take this opportunity of referring 
to another capital performance of a French 
pky : in November the girls of Lady 
HoUea'a School, Hackney, acted Le 
Voyage de M. Perriehon with genuine 
appreciation and great spirit Miss 
Clarke, the vexy able and successful 
. head mistress, and Miss Ralls, the senior 
French mistress, deserve warm congratula- 
tions on the excellent result achieved. 

% % % 

The Polyglot Club continues to prosper, 
largely owing to the enthusiasm of its 
secretary, Mr. George Toung. During the 
past year 86 new members have been 
elected, making a total of 225. The pro- 
gramme for the coming session is full of 
promise, and includes interesting lectures 
in English, French, German, Italian, 
Spanish. Russian, and Esperanto. For 
particulars, apply to the Hon. General 
Secretary, 8 and 4, Clement's Inn, Strand, 

w.a 

% % % 

The Director of the municipal Friedricha 
Gymnasium haa obtained the authorization 
of the Berlin Common Council to make 
English a compulsoiy subject for ' Ober* 
seounda * fh>m next year. French, which 
has hitherto been compulsory, will take 
the place of English as a facultative 
subject. 

% % % 

The 'new spelling' has been adopted 
by the Trustees of Columbia University — 
280 of the 800 new forms in Professor 
Brander Matthews' list, the remaining 70 
being r^ected aa 'either unnecessary or 
misleading.' Qui$ cudodid. . . . f 

% % % 

L'Entxnts Cordials offers two 
scholarships— £20 each— to candidates (of 
either sex) from University colleges. Ex- 
amination on May 16, conducted by tho 
Sodety of French Professors in England. 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDtEy^^ND 

A. A. SOMERVILLE "- --- 



W 



VOLUME IV. No. 2 



MARCH. 1908 



REPORT ON THE CONDITIGNS OF MODERN (FOREIGN) 
LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS.* 



I. 

At the Annual General Meeting of 
the Modem Language Association, 
held in December, 1905, the follow- 
ing resolution was passed : 

Thai it he an instrudion to the 
Committee to consider the condi- 
tions under which Modem Lan- 
guage teaching is carried on in 
secondary schools, and to report 
on the same with recommenda- 
tions to the next Annual General 
Meeting. 

A sub-committee, consisting of 
Mr. C. Brereton, Mr. D. L. Savory 
(retired 1907), Professor Rippmann, 
and Mr. F. B. Kirkman (hon. sec. 
and reporter), was appointed to 
carry out the instruction. In 
November, 1906, it issued an 

* This Report was presented at the 
Annual Meeting of the Modem Langnage 
Attooiation on January 8, 1908. 



inquiry form to all members of 
the Association, but as the returns 
made were insufficient, the report 
was postponed, and another form 
issued in 1907. In all, over a 
thousand forms were sent out to 
members of this and allied associa- 
tions, and 124 schools, representing 
some 17,000 pupils, made returns. 
Of these returns, 119 have been 
used for the purposes of this report. 
They come, with scarcely a dozen 
exceptions, which do not affect the 
totals, from secondary local (as 
opposed to non-local boarding) 
schools — e,g,j from grammar schools, 
county schools, intermediate schools, 
high schools, municipal schools, and 
the like. The report must be taken, 
therefore, except where otherwise 
indicated, to apply only to schools 
of this type, and, as the returns 
were of a broadly representative 
character, it may be regarded as 

8 



34 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



suppljriDg an approximately correct 
account of the conditions of Modem 
Language instruction in schools of 
the local type generally. 

IL 

Present Position op French 
AND German as shown by 
THE Returns. 

§ 1. The only modem (foreign) 
languages here taken into account 
are French and German, for these 
two alone, apart from the Welsh 
taught in the schools of the Prin- 
cipality, have a recognized place in 
the curriculum regarded from the 
point of view of a general educa- 
tion. 



French and (German. The fifth and 
sixth columns should be considered 
in conjunction with Table R 

§ 2. It will be seen that nearly a 
fourth of the classes number over 
twenty-five. Nearly half of these 
contain more than thirty pupils, 
and some as many as fifty. One 
school shows two classes of fifty 
and one of forty. This school is, 
of course, exceptional. The fact 
nevertheless remains that there is 
an excessive number of classes 
which are too large to permit 
of efficient linguistic instruction. 
Those at the other extreme — 
classes numbering from two to 
nine pupils — are to be found in 
all kinds of schools and at all 



TABLE A. 



1 


2 


8 


4 


5 


6 

AreraM Number 

in German 

GlMMe. 


Sohoob. 


BohoolA. 


Pu^l^ught 


PajsiU Uught 
(Mrman. 


ATerage Number 
in Frenob 

CIlMOl. 


BOYB ... 
Girls ... 
Mixed ... 
Totol ... 


52 

40 

27 

119 


6,782 

5,291 

4,595 

16,668 


1,862 
765 
697 

3,224 


19 
18 
21 
19 


20 
10 
14 
15 



The third and fourth columns of 
Table A are useful as showing the 
relative importance attached to 



stages, but more particularly in 
very small schools or in top forms. 
It will be noted that about a fifth 





TABLE B. 
(French only,) 








1 




Boys. 


Girls. 


Mixed. 


TotaL 


2 
8 

4 

5 


Total olaaaes 

Olaases numbering over twenty- 
five pupils 

Number of thofie with over twenty- 
five wbioh are banners' olaases 


841 
51 

70 

15 


289 
61 

50 

10 


181 
17 

70 

12 


811 
128 

190 

87 



MODERN LANGUAGES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 36 



of the larger classes are beginners. 
The proportion is possibly under- 
rated, as the returns do not in all 
cases make clear whether the two 
or three lowest forms were or were 
not parallel. The exact number is, 
however, unimportant If accuracy 



with German as a possible alterna- 
tive in many cases. Greek is excep- 
tional. French is also the first 
language to be taught in the mixed 
schools, Latin following. In these 
German receives scant attention. 
Greek is, of course, exceptional. In 



TABLE C. 



1 


2 


3 


4 


5 


SehooU. 


Arenge Hoort] 
out of ( 

French. 


wr Week in and 
Q«rman. 


Mgln — 
Franoh. Geraun. 


BojB 

Oirl« 

MiTed 

ToUl 


6 
5 

Nearly 5 


6 

4 
4i 


11 
10 
12 
11 


14 
14 
14 
14 



of pronunciation is regarded as one 
of the objects of Modem Language 
instruction, it is essential that in all 
cases beginners' classes should be 
small, so as to make individual 
attention possible. 

§ 3. The proportion of the total 
hours per week allotted respectively 
to class-work and preparation varies 
considerably, but the amount that 
may normally be allowed for the 
latter is one and a half hours. 
The length of each period in class 
is normally forty - five minutes. 
Four or five lessons a week is quite 
usual. The aggregate of hours 
given to French is four or fi^ 
times that given to German. 

§ i. In the boys' schools French 
and Latin are taught first, German 
and Greek being sometimes added 
later, and often as alternatives. 
The girls' schools place French 
always firsts Latin coming second, 



Welsh schools the native idiom often 
supplies the third language. 

§ 5. Table D shows the relative 
position of French and Latin in 
ninety-eight schools making com- 
plete returns on this point. 

This table makes clear, firstly, 
that, in the class of school here 
under consideration, French is the 
predominant language, and it is in 
a few cases the only language 
taught Latin comes second, and 
German and Greek are placed third. 
In the second place, it shows that 
the theory that languages should 
be started, not simultaneously, but 
at intervals of one or more years, 
is being translated into practice. 
It has long been felt that the latter 
method, sometimes known as the 
'intensive,' is the better, on the 
ground that greater progress is 
made by giving a large amount of 
time to the initial instruction in 
3—2 



86 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 
TABLE D. 



1 


2 


3 


' 


5 


6 


« 


Schools 
Beturzu. 


Schools in which the Fint 
Language taught la- 
French. Latin. 


Schools in which 
Latin and French 

are begun 
simultaneously. 


In which 
French is 
not taught. 


In which 

Latin is not 

taught. 


Boys ... 
Girla ... 
Mixed ... 
Total ... 


41 
88 
21 
98 


25 
35 
14 
74 


4 



4 


12 

1 

7 

20 





4 

8 

2 

14 



one language, instead of dividing 
the same between two. Even 
in cases where the simultaneous 
method was in practice, it was 
generally regarded as undesirable. 
Its continued adoption was stated 
to be due to one or other of the 
following causes : (a) Exigencies of 
examinations. This applies with 
particular force to classes composed 



that was given, however, by only 
one return. 

§ 6. Minor problems of internal 
organization are raised by the two 
following questions published in 
the inquiry form : 

If the leaching of any particular 
ckiss is divided between two or more 
teachers^ is this arrangement made 
became it is considered desirable or 



TABLE E. 
Schools in ichich the Work of a Claaa was Sliared heiween two Teachers. 





Boys. 


Girls. 

4 

15 
19 


Mixed. 


Totals. 


Undesirable, but unavoidable ... 

Desirable 

Totals 


6 

6 

10 


2 

3 
6 


11 
23 
34 



of elementary school pupils entering 
the secondary schools at a com- 
paratively late stage without any 
knowledge, or a very insufficient 
knowledge, of foreign languages. It 
applies also to preparatory schools 
where, owing to the demands of 
Public School Scholarship Examina- 
tions, a boy of eleven may be 
learning three foreign languages at 
the same time, (b) Inadequate staff, 
(c) Parental prejudice in favour of 
Latin being taught early, a reason 



because it appears v/navoidahle^ and 
does it work saiisfactorUy f 

Thirty-seven schools made no 
return under this head. Of the 
remainder, thirty-four had French 
and German classes taught by more 
than one teacher, as shown in 
Table E. 

The question is of importance, 
because dividing the work of a class 
between two teachers renders diffi- 
cult the practice of the Reform 
principle of unifying instruction by 



MODERN LANGUAGES IN SECX)NDARY SCHOOLS 37 



basing it upon the reading-book. 
The division, where regarded as 
desirable, is in some cases explained 
by the use of the Old method — 
translation being taught by one 
teacher, grammar by the other. In 
other cases it meant separate con- 
versation lessons, an abuse of the 
Reform method that is not infre- 
quent. It was also accounted for 
as a means of meeting the con- 
venience of the masters, and, in the 
case of upper forms, of giving the 
French-English and English-French 
translation to an English and French 
teacher respectively, or of putting 
the pupils 'under the influence of 
two minda' In upper classes there 
is no doubt something to be said 
for the division, however unde- 
sirable it may be in the lower. 

§ 7. h the Modem Language in- 
siruction organized by (a) ihe head 
master or head mistress directly ^ 
(6) a responsible member of the staff? 
(c) either of ihe above in conjunction 
wiih members of ihe staff meeting for 
thai purpose ? 

The form of question did not make 
it clear what exactly was meant by 
organization, so that the returns 
under this head lack precision of 
meaning, except in so far as they 
show that in many cases the staff 
is not consulted, which on a priori 
grounds, at least, would seem a 
mistake. 

§ 8. Each school was asked to 
make a return of the principal text- 
books in use. It is not easy to 
draw from these lists entirely 
reliable inferences as to the relative 
position of the Old and Reform 



methods in the schools, because a 
teacher's actual method may, and 
often does, differ considerably from 
that of the book in use, and because 
also the attempt to class the text- 
books under one or the other head 
presents considerable difficulties. 
In the following table the term 
'Reform' is used in a generous 
sense, and made to cover all texts 
(excluding books used simply for 
reading), except those which are 
exemplified by Ghardenal's French 
Course. The term 'intermixed' is 
intended to express the state of 
affairs in which the pupil's progress 
through the classes is of a kaleido- 
scopic character. Old and New 
method either alternating or being 
used in one and the same class. 
An example of the last-mentioned 
condition is provided by some 
classes in which Chardenal is used 
side by side with Reform texts* 
In two of these cases the Reform 
text is used merely as a reading- 
book, Chardenal having pride of 
place. 

It will be observed that in more 
than half the schools the Reform 
texts are limited to the elementary 
classes. It would be a mistake to 
suppose that this limitation is to be 
explained only as an outcome of 
the policy of gradually developing 
Reform methods from the bottom 
upwards. In many cases the up- 
ward progress is arrested to a 
greater or less extent by the re- 
quirements of examining bodies. 

§ 9. The returns show that only 
11 out of the 119 schools were 
not inspected, and there were 



38 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 
TABLE F. 



SohoolB. 


Boys. 


Olrls. 


ICixed. 


TotsL 


Old method throughout 

Intermixed 

Reform in elementary clasees only ... 

Reform thronghoat 

Total schools 


8 
12 
22 

8 
50 


6 
2 

21 
9 

38 


4 

1 
21 

2 
28 


18 
15 
64 
19 
116 



scarcely any that did not send in 
candidates for some external ex- 
amination, but both these points 
will be dealt with more fully in the 
next part. Here it need only be 
added that the returns make abun- 
dantly clear that the mere fact that 
a school has been inspected is no 
guarantee of efficiency, not owing, 
necessarily, to any fault in the in- 
spection, but simply to the apathy 



of those responsible for finding the 
means of carrying out the necessary 
reforms. 

§ 10. The position of the Modem 
Language staff is shown in Table G. 
The figures relate not only to assis- 
tants, but also to heads teaching 
French or German, and to chiefs of 
Modem sides. The salaries and 
hours of work of assistants will be 
dealt with under a later section. 



TABLE G. 



Schools. 

Boys ... 
Girls ... 
Mixed .. 
ForaU... 


No. of 
Teachers. 


dent Salary. 


No. of 
Teachers. 


ATersffoNon. 
resid^ Salary. 


Hours in 
Glass. 


of Glass. 


Total 
Hours. 


29 
3 

1 
83 


£107 
£40 

£150 
£99 


73 

76 

57 

205 


£185 
£112 
£134 
£145 


24 
184 
23 
22 


7 

12 
9 
9 


31 
30 
32 
31 



{To he continued.) 



ADENOIDS AND MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING.* 



In the last school year, 1906 to 1907, 
I had to teach English in two forms: 
one consisting of nine boys, seven of 
whom were suffering from adenoids, or 
were operated njion this last year, or had 
been so one, two, or thi^ee years ago. 
Their mental capacity as far as learning 
English was concerned, and their know- 



* For the first part of this article, see 
p. 16 of this Yolame. 



ledge of what they had been learning 
before, was inferior to the normal stage. 
In the other form referred to, and oonsist- 
ing of thirt} -two boys, ten boys, or one- 
third, were in the same predicament. 

In spite of assertions to the contrary, it 
wonld seem that the countries of the North 
are in a particularly unfavourable position 
oonoeming adenoids, and this may be 
explained by the hard and rough climate 
predisposing to catarrlis. And if this is 



ADENOIDS AND MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 39 



so, those diiieMflii deaerre all the more 
attention in onr ooontries. 

Swedish Govenunent High schools (and 
almost all EUgh schools are Goyenunent or 
State schools) have a medical officer 
attached io them. These fdnctionaries 
are appointed and remunerated by Govem- 
m«nt Tests of hearing and sight are 
made by them at least once a year, bnt no 
regular examination for adenoids. Eveiy 
teacher is, however, entitled to send any 
papU to the school doctor for examina* 
tion. Indigent pupils are attended free of 
charge. 

But compulsory examinations for ade- 
noids would be to the advantage of the 
school, the doctor, the pupils, and their 
teacher. The fact is that, when a boy is 
advised in a kind and gentle way to go 
to the doctor to be examined, he does not 
always act upon it. The teacher has no 
right to enforce this request. He may 
apply to the parents, bnt they have never 
observed any deafiiess in their child, and 
doubt the authority and competence of 
the teacher to be a judge in the matter. 
They sometimes look upon such a request 
as a kind of blame, and an ui^'ust blame. 
Their boy or girl is, of course, of their 
opinion. It would be the greatest mistake 
to suppose that the children themselves 
should be capable of judging of any 
deficiency in themselves. As a rule they 
have no idea that something. is wrong 
until they have been told so. 

Compulsory examination for adenoids 
should therefore be made in connexion 
with compulsory hearing- tests. All schools 
which have the latter already ought to 
meet with only little difficulty in intro- 
ducing the former too. 

As to hearing-tests they are, as far as 
I know, usually carried on according to the 
method first used and mentioned by 
Besold ; that at least is the case in 
Sweden. Two-figure numbers are whis- 
pered at a distance of some 20 to 25 
metres, and a hearing below 8 metres is 
regarded as defective. 

In serious cases of deafness such tests 
are better than nothing. But, after all. 



they are not worth much. Some of the 
sources of error have been mentioned by 
different authors : resonances in the room 
where tests take place ; the varying degrees 
of audibility in sounds — e,g,y $ and th 
sounds compared with $h sounds, i and u 
vowels, etc. 

To these remarks I should like to add 
that with older pupils such hearing-testa 
are much too simple. Numbers which 
they have heard repeated hundreds and 
thousands of times are too familiar to their 
ears, and have too many kinds of associa- 
tion, not to be instantly perceived ; as 
tests they are therefore ineffective. 

Whispered words or sentences are better 
than numbers, but, as noticed above, they 
should be chosen cautiously, with due 
regard to differences of audibility. Kor 
should the same words or phrases be re- 
peated to all the individuals of one group 
tested at the same time, or they will be 
learnt by those present still untested. 

As stated above, in whispering tests a 
distance of 8 metres is regarded as normal 
for satisfactory hearing ; others, however, 
take 10 metres ; still others (Denker at 
the first Congress on School Hygiene) 
start at 20 metres, which proves that all 
people do not whisper in the same way, as 
Dr. M^y shrewdly remarked at the second 
Congress. Such variations in the limits 
of distance are not likely to make the 
results of this method very reliable. 

Testing the power of hearing with a 
watch has other drawbacks. First and 
foremost, ' there is a great disproportion 
between the power of hearing the tick of 
the watch and the human voice. The tick 
of a watch is produced by the striking of 
the hammer upon the apex or side of the 
tooth of a ratchet-wheel. It is a simple, 
unvarying tone, modified as to quality in 
different watches. The sounds produced 
by the vocal cords, reinforced by the 
resonating cavities of the nose and mouth, 
may pass through a range of musical notea 
which may compass three full octaves. 
The chief object in testing with the watch 
is to observe whether under treatment any 
improvement has occurred.' 



40 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



'All tests of hearing with a watch or 
aoomneter are inadequate' (Roosa-Douglas, 
The Bar, Nose, and Pharynx, 1006, 
pp. 8, 4). 

Ko trustworthy method of testing hear- 
ing has yet been discovered which wonld 
give real help to a teacher of foreign 
languages, so that he could form an 
authoritative judgment whether a pupil 
possesses a nonnal power of hearing or not. 

' Besides the medical process,' said Dr. 
M^ at the second Congress on School 
Hygiene, ' there is a pedagogical test not 
to be neglected. The pupil is placed in 
front of the blackboard he has to write on, 
and the teacher, standing at a distance of 
8 metres behind the pupil, dictates to him 
the sentences to be written.' 

I have mentioned Modem Language 
teaching. Professor Walter Rippmann 
writes in one of his excellent books, Hu 
Sounds of Spoken English : 

' The importance of testing the eyesight 
IB now recognized, but the hearing is 
usually neglected. Attention must be 
drawn to this matter, as teachers often 
regard pupUs as inattentive and dull, and 
reprimand them, when they are really 
hard of hearing. The teacher's mistake is 
to some extent pardonable, because the 
defect is easily overlooked, especially as a 
pupil may hear badly in one ear and not in 
the other, and thus seem inattentive only 
when the teacher happens to be standing 
on the side of his defective ear. Further, 
it is a defect which often varies in intensity 
from day to day, according to the pupil's 
^neral condition of health. These con- 
siderations point to the urgent necessity 
of instituting an inspection of the hearing 
in our schools.' 

These few lines say much. The author 
evidently has experience of pupils 
suffering from adenoids: the hearing, 
varying from day to day, is a true 
symptom of adenoids. But they say 
more : the uigust treatment of pupils, re- 
garded as inattentive, blamed or punished, 
looked upon as mentally weak, and kept 
back, though they might have turned out 
bright and interested, perhaps clever, boys 
and girls had they been treated in time 
for the evil from which they were suffering. 
Further, Professor Rippmann says : ' The 



teacher's mistake is to some extent par- 
donable because the defect is easily over- 
looked. ' These words imply that teachers 
of modem languages are in a much more 
responsible position than their colleagues ; 
and, above all, they imply the very simple 
and just claim that the teacher of modem 
languages has a right of knowing, and 
knowing upon the verdict of responsible 
medical authorities, whether the young 
pupil is an able-bodied pupil, so to say, 
whether he or she has organs quite fit for 
study. This he must know in order to 
adapt his methods to the physical con- 
dition of the pupil, to give a just and 
unbiased opinion on his progress, to treat 
him justly, and thereby to further his 
moral development. 

What would people think of military 
authorities that should hand over young 
reoraits to military drill without ascertain- 
ing whether they are fit for training? 
That is exactly what is done in entrusting 
bad or weak hearers to modem language 
teachers without stating their infirmity. 

But, some one may suggest, why single 
out teachers of languages ? Because the 
teachers of all other subjects have the 
support of the mother-tongue, with its 
immense masses of associations of ideas, to 
help on perceptions weak in themselves. 
It is evident that the nearer the pupil 
comes to the limit of adult age, the more 
effective that help will be in all subjects 
taught in the mother-tongue. 

Why not use the mother-tongue, then, 
in teaching modem languages? Well, 
all over the world the Direct Method is 
prevailing, and where it is not it will be 
in a short time, because it is based upon 
the one sound principle of all knowledge— 
upon the empiric principle. You must 
allow your pupUs to hear the foreign 
language you are teaching them ; you 
must train his or her ear in order to be 
able to train his or her tongue. 

Is, then, Modern Language Teaching 
more important than any other subject 
whatever? No such statement is made 
here. But is it not quite needless in this 
great metropolis of the world, in a Con- 



ADENOmS AND MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING il 



gress representing all civilized nations, and 
gathering under the roof of the University 
of London — is it not needless to emphasize 
the importance of modem languages ? 

We have been told that in the com- 
petition between rival nations, commer- 
cial, industrial, intellectual, and — should 
we not add I — ethical rivals, nothing is so 
important as knowledge of the tongues. 
And, more than that, that in humanizing 
the world there is no better way to learn 
to esteem, to respect, and to love other 
nations than by learning to understand 
them, their national ideals, and their 
languages. 

Would it not be worth while, in the 
interest of this subject, to take all necessary 
measures to render this teaching as effec- 
tive, the results as solid, as possible ? 

Besides, the work of language-learning 
may be of some common use from a 
hygienic point of view. Perceiving and 
imitating foreign speech, sounds never 
heard before in everyday life, is as good a 
hearing-test as any other. An interested, 
experienced, and attentive teacher is likely 
to be the best judge whether a pupil is a 
normal hearer or not, with one very im- 
portant reservation— that he is a good 
hearer himself. But, as said above, 
teachers need the help of medical in- 
spectors, and the confirmation of their 
experiences by these authorities, just as 
pupils need to be treated by them. 

As r^ards the, so to speak, clinical 
appearance of a modem language learner 
suffering from adenoids and his mistakes 
and blunders, it may be worth while to 
point out some characteristic features. Of 
course, those features vary with the age 
and the different stage of development, 
temporary or permanept, of the derange- 
ment The remarks given below are based 
on my experience of pupils of some thirteen 
to fourteen years of age and upwards, all 
of them representing average types. It 
goes without saying that the same speech 
symptoms do not occur in all cases ; here 
they are recorded as characteristic of the 
whole group of sufferers from adenoids. 

The intonation is faulty. Either the 



voice is monotonous, or the affirmative tone 
is exchanged for an interrogative, and 
vice versa — i,e,, the tone is raised at the 
end of the sentence instead of being 
lowered. 

When urged to modulate his voice, and 
asked not to speak in a slovenly way, the 
pupil exaggerates, and, meaning to speak 
quite distinctly, he succeeds only in 
assuming a hidf-preaching, half-waming 
tone. 

Very striking Ib the difficulty of gaining 
a tolerable result when the general intona- 
tion laws of the foreign tongue do not 
coincide with those of the mother-tongue 
— e,g., those of English and German on 
the one hand, and a Scandinavian lan- 
guage or French on the other. In itself 
a severe task for all pupils, and, unfor- 
tunately enough, totally or partially over- 
looked by many teachers, it will remain a 
secret never leamt by the great majority 
of sufferers from adenoids if special atten- 
tion is not directed to that part of the 
work, and special methodical care is not 
devoted to this group of pupils. 

Medical authors have referred to the 
infantile and undeveloped intonation in 
the speech of sufferers from adenoids ; 
and, as far as my exx)erience goes, these 
characteristics remain more or less unaltered 
if the adenoids have not been removed at 
all, or too late for the patients to profit 
from it 

When for some reason the general 
activity is lowered by a severe cold or 
other kind of indisposition, in a state of 
fatigue or nervousness — c.g,y if a lesson is 
not prepared sufficiently, or very often 
under conditions apparently normal— the 
same mistakes or blunders occur, though 
they have been corrected hundreds of 
times, and though the correct pronuncia- 
tion, word, or phraseology, is quite familiar 
to the pupiL 

A brief sketch of the phonetical side of 
their speech may not be out of place. 

As to sounds in general, mistakes or 
wrong articulations are not limited to the 
ordinary substitutions of, e.g., * voiceless * 
for * voiced '; of open types of the same 



42 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



vowel instead of close, undiphthongizad 
forms for diphthongized, and vice vena. 
Sniferers from adenoids have those mis- 
takes in common with all learners. One 
thing, however, is remarkable in them — 
the difficolty they have in learning toler- 
ably correct articnlations, and of keeping 
them in memory if once aoqnired. A papil 
may have learned and mastered an articu- 
lation pretty well ; presently he seems 
never to have heard of it. 

But, also, the most surprising and in- 
comprehensible errors occur. Adenoidal 
patients even substitute back vowels for 
front vowels sometimes : fit, fat^ foot are 
substituted one for another by a pupil of 
mine in his worst moments. He is about 
eighteen years of age, and was operated 
upon quite lately. He still needs correc- 
tion until these slips of the tongue are 
remedied. But those blunders are not of 
the same kind as in other pupils. They 
recur too regularly, and are to be regarded 
as symptoms of an incomplete speech and 
relapses into some insufficient kind of 
innervation. In sufferers from adenoids 
the whole vowel system sometimes is very 
lax. 

Vowel substitutions in such pupils 
cannot possibly be grouped together 
aooording to fixed rules. They sometimes 
seem, at least in the advanced degrees 
of the disease, to take place in quite a 
desultory way. 

Consonantal substitutions are a little 
more tangible. Lack of innervation is 
the common characteristic of them all 
— articulations of the point and blade of 
the tongue towards the gmns, the cf , <, f», s 
sounds, are performed too weakly. 

This weakness of the dentals is very 
conspicuous in combinations of two sounds 
in the groups lui, rU, rl, Ir, one of the two 
being used to represent both : stanning 
for standing, elegan for eUgani^ eldery for 
elderly. 

This slovenly pronunciation* is most 



* I have observed exactly the same 
symptoms also in pupils who indulge in 
smoking, and in tnis connexion I may 



frequent at the end of the word, or, rather, 
of the sentenoe or phrase — i.«., when the 
articulating energy is decreasing. 

But is not this a very common slip of 
the tongue in all speakers f some one may 
object The answer is, that in educated 
people they do not occur so regularly, and, 
further, it must )>e borne in mind that 
sufferers from adenoids make those blunders 
when trying to pronounce to the best of 
their ability. 

Labial fricatives are substituted for 
dental fricatives — e.g, , ur\f for wUh^faaver, 
mover for fcUher, mother — a very common 
feature in baby speech in the British - 
American world, and well known also in 
the Cockney dialect, having very pro- 
bably been introduced there from the 
language of children. 

Labial fricative [tr] is substituted for 
trilled (untrilled) [r], Hawwy for Harry, 

Dental stops [<2, <] for voiced and un- 
voiced th. 

Hissing fricatives [tz\ hushing fricatives 
[/ 31 lisping fricatives [9 %] often take 
the place of one another. 

S in [ekt sp\ school, spell arc dropped, 
and the two words pronounoed kool» pell, 
by a boy fifteen years of age. Correspond- 
ing Swedish sound-combinations he pro- 
nounces correctly. What does it prove ! 
When he faces the foreign language, there 
is a relapse into feeble articulations partly 
overcome in the mother-tongue, owing, 
probably, to the infinite number of per- 
ceptions of the same words. 

R and I sounds are often omitted 
after labials— «.flr., f outer for flower^ 
another feature sufferers from adenoids 
have in common with baby speech. 

It would take us far too long to pursue 
all the blunders owing first to defective 
hearing, and, as a consequence thereof, to 
lack of innervation. 



add that smoking, even with youths of 
some seventeen to nineteen years, is not 
at all a negligible matter from the i>oint 
of view of tne efficacv of school- work, and, 
consequonUy, should never be tolerated, 
either in the public streets or in the 
home. 



ADENOIDS AND MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 43 



Some few •dditional remftrks should be 
mftde upon the syntheBis of speech in 
sufferers from adenoids. 

It is needless to point out that, when 
elements of speech are lacking, the syn- 
thesis cannot fail to be unsatisfactory. 
In other words, this class of pupils has a 
yeiy limited number of word-pictures even 
in their mother-tongue. Their vocabulary 
is often very poor, and it oosts them and 
their teacher much trouble to keep it in 
memory. 

Hence, the very common &ot that they 
are also poor speakers and poor writers in 
their own mother-tongue, judging their 
work, of oourae, only as that of school- 
boys. 

What is said here of learning foreign 
languages may be said also of the first 
language: the mother-tongue, with the 
limitations due to age, influence of associa- 
tions and their abundance. 

As to the personal hygiene, the school, 
and, if I may use the term, pedagogical 
hygiene, indispensable with sufferers from 
adenoids or with pupils having suffered 
from that lesion, some few words may be 
said, though I am quite aware of the fact 
that my own experience is too insufficient 
for me to lay down anything like general 
rules, nor do I make any claim to origin- 
ality in these remarks. 

The first precaution should be directed 
towards protecting from colds, every attack 
of cold being likely to aggravate the mor- 
bid state of the upper tonsil, and, in 
general, the passages connected with the 
organ of hearing. Gold feet in particular 
are a serious sign of coming or existent 
derangement of the tonsils and the 
hearing passages. 

Consequently, an effective and reliable 
system of heating and ventilation is of the 
utmost importance if sufferers from bad 
throats should not be affected detrimen- 
tally while in the schoolroom. Nothing 
is more pernicious, to this class of pupils 
more especially, than sitting in a room too 
hot or too cold, exposing them to great 
variation of temperature, or to an atmo- 
sphere full of moisture and stagnant air. 



The ventilation should be automatic, 
and in no case left to the pupils them- 
selves, who cannot be supposed to under- 
stand and watch over that first condition 
of their welfare— a supply of fresh air. 

Nothing but experience can show you 
what it really means to have to teach a 
group of boys with a high percentage of 
sufferers from adenoids, and in a room not 
ventilated decently, for some two or three 
hours. 

The classroom must be kept free fh>m 
dust and other substances that can be 
stirred about in the air — an axiom in all 
cases; but here the reverse is a crime 
against the pupil's right of not being 
exposed to serious bodily risks when his 
school-work is being done. 

The pupils must be placed so that they 
have the greatest possible facility for 
hearing what is said by the teacher. In 
special cases, when they have to perceive 
sounds, words, or phrases hard to follow, 
the teacher had better speak close to 
them, or, as my experience goes, directly 
into the pupil's ear ; of course, in this 
case, only in a distinct, but not shouting, 
voice. In this way very poor hearers have 
succeeded at once in hitting upon sounds 
formerly almost impossible to master — 
another proof that lack of innervation is 
the principal source of errors in weak 
hearers. 

Since hearing is defective, the teacher 
will have to appeal to the organ of sight 
in order to be able to test whether the 
instruction given has been apprehended 
or not. 

From the pedagogical point of view, the 
general lack of interest in learning, and 
more particularly in learning languages, 
is a highly characteristic and important 
feature in sufferers from adenoids. 

It is easy to explain this lack of interest 
as a symptom of the aprosexia mentioned 
above, or the difficulty of cobcentrating 
the attention upon a fixed object. First 
and foremost it should, however, be looked 
ui>on as a consequence of the unsatisfac- 
tory hearing. Sounds, words, the speech 
as a whole, are perceived very incom- 



44 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



pletely. There are few clear word-pic- 
tures ; too much is vague. Centres of 
association are wanting, and, as a rule, 
there is too little of interest Interest 
means nothing but an accumulation of per- 
ceptions associated with one another and 
with other earlier perceptions, and thus 
building up the frame of conscious will of 
learning, of interest. 

These factors, contributive to lack of 
interest and implying slow progress, are 
serious difficulties, not to bo overlooked 
in planning the school-work. But diffi- 
culties are made to bo overcome. A great 
deal of patience, and, first of all, an un- 
flagging perseverance, is demanded of the 
teacher who has to deal with sufferers 
from adenoids. Thanks to these two 
qualities he will succeed at last, but, very 
probably, only as tlie result of hard work. 
In this work he is entitled to claim the 
support of all supervising authorities, and 
last, but not least, the sympathy of his 
fellow-workers. 

I shall end with the following con- 
clusions : 

Considering that the organ of hearing is 
of the utmost importance in all teaching 
and learning, but, above all, in languages, 
and that a defective hearing is caused by 
adenoids, compulsory examination of all 
school-children for the presence of ade- 
noids should be made by specialists in 
connexion with hearing - tests, at least 
once at the age of eight to ten years, and, 
in the case of new-comers, when entering 
the school. 



The results should be recorded by school 
authorities and made accessible to all 
teachers, more especially to those of 
languages. 

All pupils in need thereof should be 
treated by specialists. 

Before beginning the study of a foreign 
language, there should be a further ex- 
amination of nose and throat in connexion 
with careful hearing-tests. Results should 
be recorded and handed to the teachers. 
The hearing-test must be repeated at least 
once every year. Also, all cases where 
adenoids or other troubles referring to the 
organ of hearing have been present should 
be recorded, and teachers informed of the 
history of their pupils in this respect. 

On the request of a teacher every pupil 
should be obliged to go to a specialist to 
have his hearing tested, and the state of 
his nose and the naso-pharyngeal region 
examined. 

Such a co-operation between the school 
and the medical world is a sine qua rum 
for a successful carrying on of one of 
the most important school subjects — tlie 
learning of foreign languages. It would 
greatly contribute to prevent mistakes on 
the part of teachers in treating and right 
judging of their pupils ; it would smooth 
the way and facilitate progress in school 
and life for many a boy and girl, many a 
man and woman, now lagging behind ; 
increase his or her chances individually 
and socially — in a word, create more 
happiness in their lives. 

Hugo Haoelin. 



THE PLACE OP TRANSLATION IN THE TEACHING OF 
MODERN LANGUAGES.* 



I SHALL not be able within the time at my 
disposal to deal with all the points raised 
in the long discussion which has been 
taking place in the columns of our organ. 
All I shall attempt is to bring up essential 
issues for rediscussion. And I trust I shall 

* Paper read at Annual Meeting of the 
Modem Lang^uage Association on Janu- 
ary 8, 1908, with the discussion thereon. 



not be expected to discuss the matter in a 
spirit of detachment from party. I rank 
myself with the Reformei's. I have been 
connected with the movement since its 
inception in this country, have known 
more or less intimately all those who 
made it, profess to be familiar with what 
they think, and venture, therefore, to 
believe that in matters of general prin- 
ciple I shall be expressing their vievrs. 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION 



45 



Between these views and those attrihuted 
to the Reformers by Mr. Latham there is 
a yery considerable difference. 

Let me begin by clearing away one 
fundamental misconception. Mr. Latham 
charges us (Modern Lanc^uaoe Tkach- 
INO. voL iii, p. 47) with not regarding 
the 'comprehension of literature' as of 
more importance than conversational 
facility or original composition. Pro- 
fessor Yietor denied this at once in his 
contribution, a denial which did not, how- 
ever, prevent Mr. Moriarty from repeating 
the charge with reckless emphasis in a sub- 
sequent contribution (Modern Language 
Teaching, vol. iii., p. 173). I venture 
to say that I carry every Reformer here 
with me when I assert that we regard, and 
always have regarded, the ability to under- 
stand the foreign literature as the chief 
end, and, further, that we value the oral 
method chiefly as the most efficient means 
to that end. Let me add that the practice 
of giving independent 'conversation 
lessons,' of which the only object is to 
teach conversation, whether for examina- 
tion purposes or practical utility, has no 
greater enemies than those who instituted 
the Reform movement in this country. 
Such lessons, which are almost always to 
be found being taught side by side with 
the old method, are a complete negation of 
the Reform principle of unifying instruc- 
tion by basing it upon the reader. I refer 
to those lessons, of course, as part of 
secondary general education. In technical* 
schools they have their proper place. 

So far, then, our aim is that of Mr. 
Latham ; we wish to provide the pupil 
with the key that unlocks the literary 
treasure-house of a foreign nation. We 
differ, though not as much as Mr. Latham 
imagines, in the method of achieving this 
aim. The difference centres in the problem 
of translation, and what I propose next to 
say is concerned with translation solely as 
a method of linguistic instruction. With 
its value as a mental discipline, or as a 
method of teaching English, I shall deal 
later. 

In order to make it clear where we differ 



and agree, I shall consider the part trans- 
lation should play in each of three definite 
stages in any given French lesson upon 
Reform principles. 

TransUUion as a Method of Teaching the 
Meaning of New Words, — This is the first 
and unavoidable step in any lesson. Re- 
ferring to this stage, Mr. Latham says: 
' I differ with them (the Reformers) in 
that I would retain a judicious use of the 
mother • tongue and of translation aa 
channels, though not the only channels, 
through which the learner can be fed 
with the materials for this composition and 
conversation ' (Modern Language Teach- 
ing, vol. iii., pp. 206-7). He then goes on 
to show that there are other effective ways 
of teaching the meaning of words — €,g,, 
by pictures, etc. — and finally charges 
the old method with ignoring this fact. 
The old method failed, 'not because it 
passed from houlanger to haker^ or from 
haJcer to boulanger, but because it never 
did anything else,* 

Exactly so. This is what we have been 
proclaiming for the last ten years. We 
hold that translation is one, but not the 
only, legitimate means of making clear 
the meaning of foreign words. We have 
said it, written it, shouted it from the 
house-tops, and seemingly to deaf ears.* 



* As some of my friends seem to think 
I have only recently ' come round,' I im- 
posed upon myself the task of re-reading 
my own utterances, and have been highly 
c^fied by my consistencv. Five years ago, 
on December 23, 1902, I gave an address 
to the Modem Language Association on 
the * Use and Abuse of Translation.' The 
views there expressed, and published on 
p. 41 of the Modern Language Quar- 
terly of 1903, are practically identical with 
those I expressed at this year's meeting. 
To make the similarity between the two 
meetings still more striking, I find in a 
report of the same meeting in the Journal 
of Education (January, 1903), 'that Pro- 
fessor Rippiuaun found himself in sub- 
stantial agreement with Mr. Eirkman.' 
I find almost the same views expressed in a 
series of articles in the Journal of Educa- 
tion, which I contributed, in collaboration 
with Professor Findlay and Mr. A. E. 
Twentyman, at the very dawn of the 



46 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



It is trae that the Reformers would even 
at this stage limit transUtion to the 
strictly essential, bat not because, as Mr. 
Latham imagines (Modern Lanovaos 
Tbachino, vol. iii., p. 204), they think it 
impedes the direct connexion. For all 
we know, it may help the direct connexion. 
What we are eertain about, and we have 
said it frequently at past Modem Language 
Association meetings, is that when the 
meaning of a word has been taught by 
translation, or when spontaneous mental 
translation has taken place, there is no diffi- 
culty in breaking the indirect connexion 
and creating the direct, if the translation 
is not persisted in after it has served its 
purpose. When the mother-tongue is not 
deliberately insisted upon, it ceases auto- 
matically to act as a mental link between 
the foreign word and its content, simply 
because its presence is not essential. It 
perishes by disuse. 

We avoid translation at this stage as 
much as possible, on the principle that the 
more French and the less English in the 
French hour the better for the French, and 
also because we wish to train the pupils to 
have words explained in French, a most 
valuable means of giving the connotation 
of a word with a precision often impossible 
by translation. 

We believe, then, at this stage in 
'judicious' translation, the amount de- 
pending on circumstances, but the less the 
better. 



Reform in this country (1896-7). Except 
in respect to phonetics, these articles were 
endorsed by such Reformers as Mr. Fabian 
Ware and Mr. H. W. Atkinson. Again, 
I find in the Modern Lanouaoe Teach- 
INO of November, 1906, one on the 
'Learning of Words,' by Professor Ripp- 
mann, ana the other a report of an address 
to the British Association by myself; in 
which all the essential points dealt with 
at our last meeting are discussed, and in 
the same sense. Yet, at our last meeting 
some one had the audacity to accuse us 
both of being Vu extremitts, and also of not 
having made known our views. To expect 
us to do more than we have done is to 
impose a very heavy strain upon the 
retiring nature of our dispositions. 



Translatum in the Practising Stage, — 
The object of this step is so to familiarize 
the pupil with the use of the word-matter 
he has leamt in the first step, with 
its constructions, inflexions, idioms, that 
he can understand it when read or heard, 
and reproduce it in speaking or writing 
without conscious effort, so that, in short, 
he can use it as the native uses it. If this 
fiusility is to be acquired the direct con- 
nexion must be established. This Mr. 
Latham admits : 

' I agree with my opponents that we 
must have conversation and composition 
immediately in the foreign language if any 
facility in its use is to be acquired, and 
I agree that such facility is desirable' 
(Modern Lanouaoe Teaching, voL iii. 
p. 206). 

Kow, if Mr. Latham admits the necessity 
of the direct connexion at this stage, he 
admits the fundamental principle of the 
Reform method, the principle by which it 
stands or falls, and in respect to which we 
admit no compromise, no sitting on the 
fence, no 'mean.' But in spite of the 
above quotation, parts of Mr. Latham's 
article leave me still in doubt whether we 
are to count him with us or against us. 

Let me refer here to what has been said 
about the inaccurate grammar of pupils 
taught on Reform methods. In so far as the 
Reform is responsible for this, it is due, not 
to the use of the oral method, but to neg- 
lect of it. The oral method — question and 
answer in the foreign tongue — can be, 
and has been, applied to the teaching of 
grammar in such a way as to afford a 
more thorough and effective drill than is 
given by any other means. Space forbids 
me to develop this, but I am quite pre- 
pared to prove it, if challenged. The old 
method, let me add, sometimes taught 
accuracy in grammar, but not necessarily 
in the application of grammar — quite a 
different thing. 

Translation as a Test, — The Reformers 
have always admitted it, both as means 
of control in the class-room and as a test 
in public examinations. How far it 
should be used remains an open question. 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION 



47 



Peraonally, I wonld rigidly exclude trans- 
Ution into the foreign language from all 
junior ezaminationa, because it compels 
many teachers to giye ^systematic transla- 
tion lessons at a stage when they regard it 
as yery undesirable. 

Translation as a MenUU Discipline, — 
So far I have dealt with translation as a 
method of teaching a foreign language. 
But, aeoording to Mr. :Latham and Mr. 
Moriarty, it also claims our attention as 
an 'unsurpassed means of mental diwsi- 
pline.' It teaches discrimination in the 
choice of words, it cultiyates felicity in 
expression, and, to quote Pliny, 'gives 
force in developing ideas.' Who denies 
this, or has ever denied it? Who, in 
possession of his senses, ever would deny 
it f If the Reformers have not emphasized 
the &ct, it is that they were charitable 
enough to assume it was generally recog- 
nized. What may be denied is that trans- 
lation affords a complete literary disci- 
pline. It does not, for example, teach com- 
position^ using the word to mean the ability 
to select and arrange one's material in such 
a way as to produce a literary whole that 
is a work of art. The reason why the 
French surpass us as teachers of composi- 
tion is their clear recognition of this fact. 

But do Mr. Latham and his supporters 
seriously maintain that, beyond the limited 
literary discipline above referred to, trans- 
lation supplies a mental discipline that is 
not supplied equally well by some other sub- 
ject in the curriculum ? If so, I challenge 
them to prove it. 

Admitting, then, the value of translation 
as a literary discipline, to what extent is 
it to be used I Limits of space must be 
my excuse for laying down dogmatically 
the following axioms : (1) That if transla- 
tion is to be done as a literary discipline 
it must be done thoroughly : the sys- 
tematic indifferent translation often per- 
mitted in the class-room is an unmixed 
evil ; (2) that literary translation should 
not be done in the French or (German hour 
unless it profits French and German as 
well as English ; (3) that this kind of 
transliktion, especiaUy from English, 



should not be attempted till the pupil 
has made considerable headway in the 
direct use of the foreign language. I would 
exclude systematic translation altogether 
from the earlier stages of instruction. 

It is, of course, open to Mr. Latham to 
say that we are not the Reformers he has 
been attacking. Very good. Let him find 
the reformers he has been attacking — ^these 
'root and branch reformers,' the 'revolu- 
tionary party ' — and we shall be only too 
delighted to join him in hunting the 
wretches down and in exterminating 
them — horse, foot, artillery, and camp- 
followers. Can I say more ? 

But whatever he says does not alter the 
fact that we have been indiscriminately 
tarred with his brush. Still, I do not 
regret his attack: First, because it has 
given us an opportunity of re-stating our 
position ; secondly, because it reveals to us 
the extent to which we are still misunder- 
stood ; and, lastly, because it has per- 
mitted us to enjoy the joyous wit and the 
dialectical ingenuity of Mr. Latham. 

F. B. KiRKMAN. 

The Chairman : I invite discussion 
upon the paper that has been read. I am 
sure that we shall all agree that it is a 
most interesting and valuable paper, and I 
have no doubt that we shall have a par- 
ticularly valuable discussion. 

Mr. Milner-Barry said that he did 
not intend to take part in the discussion 
from his own point of view, but he had 
been empowered by Mr. Siepmann, of 
Clifton College, to read to the meeting his 
views on the position of translation in the 
teaching of modem languages. Mr. Siep- 
mapn was at present out of England. He 
need not remind the meeting that Mr. 
Siepmann was a teacher of great experi- 
ence, and had been singularly successful in 
his profession. Mr. Siepmann wrote as 
follows : 

'It is sad that the Modem Language 
Association should at this time of the day 
discuss at the Annual Meeting the question 
whether translation is to be abolished ; 
for I believe that every practical school- 



48 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



master of experience who has followed the 
Reform movement in the various countries 
of Europe, and has made serious ezperi- 
menta in the class-room, must look upon 
this point as a rea judicata. One thing is 
quite certain, that unless our pupils trans- 
late into English what they read, a good 
deal of the text read remains ohscure to 
them, and a good deal is taken to mean 
something different from what it does 
mean. But, quite apart from this, it 
seems folly to throw overboard a practice 
which is an excellent training in accuracy 
and style. I am at the same time satisfied 
that a text read and translated is not to be 
considered as done with, but these pre- 
liminaries are merely clearing the ground 
which is to be cultivated. When once the 
pupil knows the meaning, not in a general 
way, but the exact meaning of every 
sentence, then, and not until then, can a 
sncoessful trea^ent of the thought con- 
tained in a given passage or chapter begin, 
and that sliould be done in the foreign 
language by way of question and answer. 
If this operation is carried out skilfully, 
the pupils will not only receive valuable 
practice in the spoken tongue, but they 
will also see the fpradual development of a 
series of thoughts in a logical order. And 
if the master writes upon the blackboard 
the various points which are dealt with by 
the author in such order, the pupil should 
elaborate these points in the final stage in 
connected speech. In that way he gets 
practice in the foreign tongue in connected 
speech, and he is trained to express him- 
self clearly and logically on a given 
subject. 

* It is simply not true that the fact of 
the passage having been translated into 
English in the preliminary stage prevents 
the pupil from expressing himself in the 
foreign language without thinking of the 
English. He nvill do so at first, whether 
he has translated or not ; but the further 
treatment of the subject in the foreign 
language, and the fact that in this 
process he becomes gradually more and 
more familiar with the thought and the 
forms in which it is expressed, is alone 



sufficient to make the English recede more 
and more, and to bring the foreign forma 
to the top in his mind, so that he can 
express his thoughts on the subject in 
hand without thinking any longer of the 
English. This does, of course, not imply 
that he will be able to express himself in 
this direct way on any subject, but 
gradually he will gain greater power and 
greater confidence, and when in the course 
of years he has become familiar with a 
whole array of topics in the way described, 
he will in the upper forms express himself 
on any ordinary topic without shaping his 
thought first in English. But my ex- 
perience has shown me unmistakably that, 
even with advanced pupils, it is not safe to 
read an author without translating him 
first if anything but a superficial know- 
ledge is aimed at. No schoolboy can 
reach that stage of proficiency in a foreign 
language that he can read a stiff passage 
and take it in correctly and accurately 
without translating it. Translation alone 
reveals to him the many difficulties con- 
tained in a passage, and translation alone 
will show him the fine shades of meaning 
expressed by the author. 

' I have no doubt whatsoever that a 
pupil trained in the way I have indicated 
will at the end of his school career read 
an ordinary book with much fuller under- 
standing, without translating it, than a 
pupil who has not gone through this 
training, for the former has learnt to read 
accurately and the latter superficially .' 

Professor Bippmanx said that, when he 
read a page of literary French or Grerman, 
it took him perhaps two minutes. He 
appreciated what he read, and, generally 
speaking, he had no doubt that his reading 
powers were superior to his 8|)eaking or 
writing powers. Now he was told that in 
reading thus he had been going through a 
process of ' unconscious ' or 'subconscious ' 
translation. If he sat down and tried to 
write a translation of the same page of 
French or German, and do it well, it might 
take him two hours; and what kind of 
translation, whether 'unconscious' or 
'subconscious,' that could be which he 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION, 



49 



cmrried oat in reading he did not under- 
stand in the least. Was he in two minutes 
piodacing a rendering of the idiomatic 
passage which was really satisfiBkctory ? 
Was he doing a word-for-word rendering 
snch as coold be produced by mechanical 
reference to a dictionary? At any rate, 
whether there were an unconscious or a 
sabconadous translation or not, he realized 
it as his most important task as a teacher 
to confer upon Mb pupils that same power 
of appreciative reading that he had himself 
acquired. He regarded it as of supreme 
Talue for his pupils, but he could not hope 
to impart it to all in the same degree. 
What we wanted to send away from our 
schools was pupils who would read their 
French or their German so that the 
thought would enter their mind as nearly 
as possible in the way in which that 
thought would enter into the mind of a 
Frenchman or a German. 

The difficulty of real translation had 
been pointed out in Mr. Storr's admirable 
address of the preyious day. For the last 
ten or twelye years it had been his (Mr. 
Bippmann's) work to correct the French 
and German translations of men who had 
been three years at the Uniyersity, and 
who had learned modem languages on the 
old method, and the great bulk of them 
were incapable of translating French and 
German into what he would call real 
TEnglinh and of giving an adequate rendering 
of the thought. Was it imagined that there 
was any mental discipline in translating 
sentences of the old-fashioned type such as 
'EEaye you a tooth-pick T No, but the 
chimney-sweep has a pocket-knife'! If 
there was any literary value in that, lot it 
be shown. 

He maintained that at the early stages 
there was no art of translation. Literary 
culture was not our object in teaching 
beginners. In the elementary stage there 
might be occasional translation of a word 
or phrase for the purpose of compre- 
hension. The Reform teacher had always 
approved of that ; nor was it necessary to 
a«nre him that, when a new foreign word 
WIS given, the English word presented 



itself to the mind of the child. It was 
inevitable. The only question was, Should 
they always give the translation at oncci 
without any effort on the child's part to 
understand the new word, or was there 
some value in letting the child get at 
the meaning for himself I* The Reform 
teacher maintained that there was a great 
difference between supplying the English 
equivalents indiscriminately from the 
dictionary or vocabulary and giving them 
in a discriminating way. They were 
sometimes told that the definitions given 
in Reform method books were inadequate ; 
but they did not want to give children 
complete definitions of words. The word 
of which the pupil was to ascertain the 
meaning occurred in a book, and if the 
book was a good one for the purpose the 
new word would occur in a reasonable 
context, so that the pupil trying to ascer- 
tain its meaning would not depend ex- 
clusively upon the explanatory footnote. 
When the meaning of the word was once 
obtained by the child, he should repeat 
and repeat and repeat The objection that 
the pupil's idea might be hazy at first was 
in the case of certain abstract words un- 
doubtedly true ; but to supply an English 
word which by no means embraced its fiill 
meaning was to supply a misleading defini- 
tion. The proper way to dispel the hazi- 
ness was to repeat the word in varying 
contexts. 

There was an idea that translation was 
necessary for grammatical practice. Re- 
form teachers had shown that there was 
very real value in the kind of exercises 
which thoy had tried to substitute, and 
grammar was now being taught as applied 
grammar, and not in isolated words ; it 
was practised in the foreign language, not 
by means of translation. 

• To connect the new word with various 
,.jup8 of words already present in the 
earner's consciousness, witn its ophite, 
with its derivatives, with words of similar 
meaning, etc., is of much greater value 
than to connect it directly with the 
English (more or less) equivalent word. 
It leads to the formation of associations 
which help to fix the word in the mind. 

4 



groi 
leai 



60 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



He would be the Ust to deny the value 
of translatioii as an art, and Pliny's words, 
which Mr. Moriarty had aptly quoted, 
were as true as ever ; but such translation 
was an exercise for the advanced student, 
especially in the case of translation from 
the mother-tongue. Those who disagreed 
with the advanced English Reformers often 
expressed their complete approval of the 
importance attached by them to phonetics, 
to oral practice, to applied grammar exer- 
cises. They were willing to adopt all 
these, but they wished also to practise 
translation from the mother-tongue from 
the outset Now, it was not likely that 
the time allotted to modem languages in 
schools would be materially increased. 
The consequence was that they would 
have less time for set composition than 
before, and would therefore achieve still 
less than at present. And what had they 
achieved ? Examiners always told the 
same tale in reporting on the composition 
work of modern language candidates in 
junior examinations : it was hopelessly 
bad, marred by gross neglect of the rudi- 
ments of grammar and vocabulary. 

Mr. Moriarty had suggested as a com- 
promise that at least one lesson a week 
should be given to colloquial work, and 
the rest to prepared translation and 
composition. He (Mr. Rippmann) could 
not accept this, because he maintained 
that the reading of a text and oral prac- 
tice should go closely together, and that 
set composition was out of place, except 
in the case of a very good class at the top 
of the schooL 

Mr. Latham's contention that * practice 
was mechanical, but comparison intel- 
lectual,' he characterized as a specious 
but misleading remark, and maintained 
that practice such as the Reform teachers 
had introduced was of real intellectual 
value, whereas the comparison called forth 
by the translation methods commonly 
employed consisted largely in foreign 
words being directly connected with 
English words, often with only an in- 
direct connexion with the underlying 
idea. In oral examinations he had often 



found that a candidate was unable to 
name quite an ordinary object, but when 
the English name was mentioned he was 
able to give the foreign word at once. 

Professor Rippmann proceeded to quote 
a passage from a letter by Mr. Pollard,* 
who said : ' To put off translation is un- 
fair to boys leaving before the highest 
forms are reached. These boys will have 
forgotten, a year or two after leaving 
school, their modem languages ; and if 
mental training has not been a serious 
item in their education, whatTis the benefit 
they will have gained for their work in 
life T' and the following passage from a 
letter by Mr. A. Tilleyf : 'If the aim of 
teaching is to promote intelligent and 
fluent reading of the foreign language, 
then translation should be used very 
sparingly, and chiefly as an educational 
test ; but if its aim is to turn out a 
scholar, or even to instil into the learner 
notions of accuracy, taste, and literary 
insight, then translation, both from and 
into the foreign language, is indispen- 
sable.' He expressed his regret that these 
eminent men should have misunderstood 
the methods and objects of the Reform 
teachers, who desired that even those 
pupils who did not reach the highest 
forms should acquire such power of read- 
ing and such interest in literature that 
they would not forget their modem lan- 
guages a year or two after leaving school ; 
who believed that the training given in 
the foreign language called for much more 
serious mental effort than used to be 
customary in the days when the dictionary 
held undisputed sway ; and who did not 
agree with Mr. Tilley that it was a ques- 
tion of difference of aim, not of method. 
Reform teachers were in complete agree- 
ment with Mr. Latham when he stated 
that the aim was to enable pupils to 
'think the thoughts of exceptionally 
gifted minds.' It was the thought they 
cared for above all things; and, there- 
fore, their main object was to enable their 

* Modern Languaffe Teaching, iiL 221. 
t /Wrf., iii. 222. 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION 



51 



pupils to read intelligently and fluently. 
When this had been achieved, they could 
proceed to the higher i^ork of training 
scholars ; but it was surely injudicious to 
treat all boys and girls as though they 
were going to stay at school until they 
were eighteen or nineteen, and then to 
take Modem Language Honours at the 
Uniyersity. How many of their pupils 
would ever be called upon to do the work 
of expert translators ? How many would 
shine in the ranks of scholars ? 

Mr. Latham's experiences as an ex- 
aminer,* and Mr. Fuller's as a teacher of 
modem languages, f would have been more 
valuable if they had given full particulara. 
The interest of carefully recorded experi- 
ments was very great, and he hoped that 
Reformers and those who disagreed with 
them would alike continue to carry on 
their experiments in friendly rivalry. He 
looked back upon the last ten years as a 
period of real progress. There had been 
oocasional skirmishing, attack and 
counter-attack, but there had, fortu- 
nately, been no such odium phUologicum 
as had been witnessed elsewhere. He 
maintained that the aim of all earnest 
teachers of modem languages was the 
same, though they might seek to attain 
it by diverse paths. It was the animating 
spirit that was all-important— the spirit 
of intelligent sympathy, of sweet reason- 
ableness and international goodwill. 

The Rev. W. H. Hodges (St Lawrence 
College, Ramsgate) said that a great 
statesman once asserted that we were all 
Socialists now, and he thought that it 
might be said that they were all Re- 
formers now, because nobody wanted to 
go back to the old days when there was 
either a Frenchman or a German in the 
English school who had a very imperfect 
knowledge of English and a still more 
imperfect capability of keeping order, 
and the class was a bear-garden ; or else 
the foreign language was taught by an 
Englishman who could not speak it 



* Modem Language Teaching^ iii. 201. 
t Pnd,, iii 100. 



They were all Reformers, but to some 
extent they differed on certain points. 
Ho had a complaint to make against 
those who were represented by Mr. Kirk- 
man and Professor Rippmann, and whom 
he would venture to call extreme Re- 
formers. It was that, even when attack- 
ing an opponent like Mr. Latham, they 
set up a doll, and painted it sometliing 
like their opponent, and then they knocked 
it down, and said that they had beaten 
their opponent He went rather carefully 
through the reproduction of Mr. Latham's 
speech of last year in Modern Lanouaos 
Teaching, and his impression was that 
Mr. Latham's arguments had not been 
met at all, and that the so-called argu- 
ments which had been answered to-day 
were arguments which had never been set 
forth by Mr. Latham, and which, he 
should say, all the members of the Asso- 
ciation had discarded. But, at the same 
time, there was one radical difference 
among the various members of the Asso- 
ciation, and trauslation, he supposed, was 
the bone of contention. With regard to 
the use of translation, Mr. Kirkman was 
rather like the old-fabled Proteus. They 
attacked him at one point, and he 
changed his shape, and set up something 
else. For instance, he told them in the 
beginning of his i)aper that he admitted 
that in the first stage lessons there was 
a legitimate use of translation, and he 
stated that modem language teachers had 
been proclaiming that fact over and over 
again to deaf ears. He (Mr. Hodges) must 
confess that he must be very deaf, because 
he had not heard the proclamation. He 
had had a good deal of experience of the 
Reform method. He had been a pupil of 
Mr. Tilly in Germany, and had sat at 
the feet of Professor Victor ; also he had 
studied many of the plans proposed by 
the extreme Reformers, and he had always 
thought that the main thing which they 
insisted on was that, at any rate in the 
beginning, they should banish English 
altogether. They used a picture, and they 
pointed out various objects, and they told 
the French name ; but there were certain 
4—2 



52 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



words that could not possibly be explained 
in that way, and he would venture also 
to state that there were pictures in 
existence, and largely used, in which the 
pupils could not always tell what was 
meant by the pictures. The teacher 
might be explaining a cow, and the chil- 
dren would think that he was talking 
about a donkey. Mr. Rippmann had said 
that there was not time for translation in 
a class. In opposition to that, he would 
say that translation, used as a way of 
getting at the meaning of words, was one 
of the ways of saving time. To explain 
an abstract word such as * very ' or 
* tr^ ' without translation would take ten 
minutes ; but to tell the boys and girls 
that 'tr^' meant 'very' would enable 
them to understand it at once. It would 
save a great deal of time and the writing 
up of half a dozen sentences, and it would 
not interfere with their appreciation of 
the French. 

Professor Rippmann said that both he 
and Mr. Kirkman accepted the use of trans- 
lation in the case of a new word or plirase 
to make the meaning clear. 

Mr. HoDOKS, continuing, said that he 
was glad to find that Professor Rippmann 
was in agreement with him about that 
matter, because there were many people 
who arrogated to themselves the name of 
Reformers, but who would object to even 
that amount of translation. It always 
seemed to him that in all stages of modem 
language teaching, but much more in the 
advanced stage than in the elementary 
stage, they lost a very great deal if they 
did not make use of translation, because 
they would lose all the ideas or concepts 
which had been formed in the pupils* 
minds, and which they had already learned 
to express in English words, and they 
would take them back to their early child- 
hood for them to begin to form their ideas 
again. If this course was adopted, it 
would have to be followed a second or a 
third or a fourth or a fifth time — that is 
to say, every time a fresh language was 
commenced. 

A Member asked Mr. Hodges who were 



the people who objected to the use of 
English words in such a case as he had 
described. 

Mr. HoDOKs: Mr. Kirkman and Pro- 
fessor Rippmann have both publicly 
written that you should use English as 
little as possible. 

A Member : As little as possible, cer- 
tainly. 

Mr. H0DOE8 said tliat his point was that 
the English word should be used rather 
more, or considerably more, often for ex- 
planation, in some stages than Mr. Kirk- 
man would use it The last point that he 
would make was that the only efficient 
way of testing in a short time the work 
done in the class-rooms was translation. 
('No.') If the testing was to be done by 
giving the class free composition, it would 
be often impossible, unless the class was 
very advanced, to get anything like a fair 
test. 

Mr. VON Glehn said he wished to take 
up the note of peace and goodwill on which 
Professor Rippmann had closed. Now that 
the general principles of the Direct 
Method were almost universally accepted 
at least, if not yet whole-heartedly ap- 
plied, it was more important than ever to 
give free scope to experiments in practice, 
while at the same time making sure of 
agreement on fundamental questions. But 
eiren here there lurked a danger. Owing 
to lack of training in psychology there was 
great danger of their euipliasizing points 
of very small difiercnce in practice, and 
tracing them to fundamental differenoes 
in theory. He was conscious of this lack 
of training himself, and was chary of 
talking psychology. 

On this question of the Place of Transla- 
tion, it seemed to him most encouraging 
that even Mr. Siepmanu. who, in the letter 
that had been read, appeared as a champion 
of translation, was with them on the most 
important point — a point which Mr. 
Kirkman had made, and which, if he 
might judge by the applause that greeted 
it, they almost all agreed about — and that 
was the importance of avoiding the mother- 
tongue completely at what Mr. Kirkman 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION 



53 



had called 'the stage of practice.' There 
seemed to be a great deal of difference of 
opfnion as to how far the mother-tongue 
should be used in the preceding stage — 
Tiz., that of teaching the meanings of new 
words and new expressions. Bat it was 
really a fiict of the highest importance 
that they were all agreed about the avoid- 
ance of the mother-tongue in the practice 
stage of the foreign language. This 
principle, if he remembered aright, had 
been insisted on yesterday in that admir- 
able account that they had heard of 
Modem Language Teaching in the West 
Riding. He did not doubt that when 
translation was used in the explanatory 
stage, the connexion with the mother- 
tongue could be broken by repeated prac- 
tice in the foreign tongue alone. But 
there must be plenty of the latter. Every- 
thing, he thought, depended upon that. 
As a matter of fact, most of them were 
agreed that the thing to 'go for' was 
' direct association,' and some thought tliat 
to attain this end it was best to avoid all 
use of the mother-tongue. Others thought 
that the mother-tongue ought to be used 
as much as might be found necessary. 
Personally, he thought the ideal to aim at 
was to use it as little as possible ; and he 
found in practice that, if one did not aim at 
avoiding it, one did not discover all the 
ways there were of avoiding it. This he 
had experienced in his own teaching, 
where he had to use the mother-tongue 
more or less, according to the class. If a 
teacher was fortunate enough to bo able 
to classify his pupils according to their 
ability and not according to their age, he 
would find that he had one class of pupils 
of ten or eleven in which he had to use 
the mother- tongue a great deal, and another 
in which he practically did not use it at 
alL It was simply a question of judgment 
and adaptation, and the principle re- 
mained exactly the same — i.«., avoid the 
mother-tongue. It made all the difference 
whether one's ideal was to use the mother- 
tongue * as little as possible ' or * whenever 
it seemed necessary/ But in the practice 
stage of the language, if they agreed in 



aiming at direct association as the true 
way of developing Sprachge/uhl, they must 
necessarily avoid the mother-tongue alto- 
gether, and use the foreign language 
alone. 

Again, when they came to the third 
stage, the test stage, the test of transla- 
tion, though useful occasionally, was far 
from being the only one, or even the best. 
Here, again, it was only by deliberately 
avoiding the use of the mother-tongue 
that one discovered all the different means 
there were of doing without, and of testing 
the foreign language in and through the 
foreign language. They must have an 
ideal to hold to, and not go muddling 
about in practice without an ideal ; and the 
common ideal of all good teaching, whether 
they were partisans of the old dr the new 
method, was to make what they taught 
recU to their pupils. And all teachers 
of languages, even the old-fashioned ones, 
knew that the way to get this recUity was 
to make the pupil see — visualize — what he 
was speaking, reading, or writing about. 
He knew teachers of classics who felt this 
need of visualization so much that, when 
they were translating Osesar with their 
classes, they were constantly putting the 
same kind of questions that were used as 
tests under the Direct Method, and some 
were actually beginning to put these ques- 
tions in Latin and Greek, of course with 
excellent results. The important thing 
was that language should be connected 
with objects, ideas, sensations, and senti- 
ments, and not with mere words in another 
language. Only recently a French lady 
teacher, with a wide experience both of 
class and private teaching, had told him 
she had been struck by the fact that 
English children, on the whole, were defi- 
cient in the habit of visticUization. It was 
one of the national defects of the English 
that they did not visiuUize enough in their 
own language. He (Mr. von Glehn) had 
found that by beginning early it was quite 
easy to develop this habit in English pupils 
in connexion with French. So much so, 
indeed, that they afterwards found it 
natural to apply it to Latin— one of the 



54 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACfflNG 



many good reasons for teaching the 
modem before the ancient foreign lan- 
guage. All this, he thought, was to the 
good, beoause it developed that concrete 
basis of all language expression without 
which they could not have art of any 
kind or any real appreciation of art. 

Finally, he wished people would always 
distinguish between the three different 
things which had been indifferently called 
* translation ' in the course of the disoos- 
sion — between (L) the 'Occasional use 
of the mother-tongue' in explaining 
new words and expressions, and for other 
purposes, (ii.) the old-fashioned continuous 
'Construe' and (iii.) the' Art of trans- 
lation,' on which they had had such an 
able leotui-e the day before from their 
President, Mr. Storr, and which naturally 
fell into two parts— translation /roni and 
into the foreign language, the French 
Version and Thime. The first must occur 
more or less, especially in the elementary 
stage ; but he wislied they could agree to 
banish the old ' Construe ' from the class- 
room—that Heading off of the text in 
English — as the first means of elucida- 
tion. Mr. Siepmann, in his letter, ap- 
parently implied that the whole of the 
text should be translated before they came 
to practise what had been acquired in the 
foreign language. Well, this depended 
entirely on the text Personally, he (Mr. 
Ton Glehn) thought tliat the ordinary 
reading ought to be sufficiently easy for 
each sentence to produce its impression 
in the foreign language. There might be 
one or two words here and there which 
the pupils did not grasp, and they could 
be explained by pantomime, pictures, 
paraphrase, or, if necessary, by the 
mother-tongue, but the general meaning 
of the sentence should bo giasped in the 
foreign lawpuuje. He believed that a 
text in which the teacher had to use the 
mother-tongue for more than half the 
sentences was a text too difficult for the 
class; and he should apply that gauge 
right through. He did not think that a 
class should begin to read Moli^re until 
they were adv'anced enough to get a clear 



general impression from the foreign text 
without and before translating it. Let 
translation come afterwards, by all means, 
but only of limited portions of special 
beauty or even of special difficulty, so 
that it should be regarded as an occasion 
for putting forward one's best powers. 
Otherwise one would fall back into the 
pitfalls of the old-fashioned 'Construe.' 
In a word, let the only translation 
practised be the 'Art of translation.' 
This form of translation — the French 
Version— WM of great value in many 
ways at every stage, except, perhaps, in 
the elementary, where he preferred to use 
it only as a rare test ; for the elementary 
stage was the all - important stage for 
forming habits, and in that stage they 
must concentrate all their efforts on form- 
ing the habit of Direct Association, which 
would be interfered with by the regular 
practice of translation from the foreign 
tongue. As to the art of translation inio 
the foreign language— the French Th^me 
— it was still an open question with re- 
formers where it should begin. He was 
beginning to think more and more that 
it should begin only in the highest stage, 
if at all, at school. Up to that point all 
composition in the foreign language 
should take the form of Reproduction 
and Free Composition, and there should 
be plenty of both. As to pupils who left 
school at sixteen, it could not be expected 
that they should have had a training in 
translation into the foreign language 
unless they were very exceptional ; but 
they ought to be turned out capable of 
writing their own thoughts in the foreign 
language. The difficulty in writing the 
foreign language came in where a person 
had to reproduce in the foreign language 
ideas and notions that he could not write 
' off his own bat' When one had only to 
write things which one might have con- 
ceived oneself it was perfectly easy ; but 
the expressing in the foreign hinguage 
ideas foi-eign to, or at least unfamiliar to, 
the translator, was a very difficult process, 
and one could only expect it to be prac- 
tised with real advantage at the Univer- 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION 



55 



aity or by the yery best pupils, sooh as 
scholarship pupils, at schooL He should 
like to mention that this had been done 
in classics. He knew a school where con- 
tinuous proee was formerly begun only in 
the Sixth, and this had been attended 
with excellent results. One of the best 
teachers of Latin and Greek composition 
at Cambridge had told him that he attri- 
buted his success therein to having begun 
composition late, when he already had a 
large stock of Latin and Greek at his 
command ; and another famous classical 
scholar had told him that his success in 
composition as an undergraduate came 
from having practised free composition in 
Latin and Greek. 

Miss Shsabbon (Exeter High School) 
felt a little sorry that a good deal of 
emphasis had been laid upon words and 
the necessity of the translation of words. 
From an experience extending over the 
last six years, she thought that they 
undoubtedly made a mistake in thinking 
that a child was necessarily going to 
stumble over words. A great deal of time 
and thought must be given to the choice 
of the text-book which the children were 
to read. They should not immediately 
have a text-book in which they would 
oome across any number of difficult words, 
which the teachers would find very diffi- 
cult to explain without resorting to the 
mother- tongue. The text should be such 
as would not constantly require explana- 
tion. People learnt a great many of the 
meanings of words by understanding the 
sentences in which they occurred ; and it 
was the sentence that was the unit, and 
not the word. She had been struck by a 
point which she did not think had been 
mentioned. They had been constantly 
hearing about translation as a help to 
understanding the text. Her experience, 
again, told her that they must be very 
careful to look at this matter from just 
the opposite direction. It was not trans- 
lation which was going to help the com- 
prehension of the French or the German ; 
but it was, she found, being able to read 
and understand the French and the 



German that would help the translation 
when the time for it came. A short time 
ago there was a long paper in Modkbn 
Language Teaching on the difficulties 
of translation, and a more amusing set of 
horrors than appeared in that article she 
had seldom read. One of the things 
which she thought the Reformers were 
doing was to teach the boys and the girls 
to understand the text as they read it in 
the foreign language, and the understand- 
ing of the text in the foreign language 
made such horrors almost, if not quite, 
impossible. During the last five or six 
years she had found that amongst those 
of her pupils who had been instructed in 
French without the medium of transla- 
tion she was able to count on the fingers 
of one hand the horrors of perverted or 
wrong French translation. With regard 
to examinations, she should be very glad 
indeed if those who were in authority in 
the matter could see their way to refusing 
to admit to a written examination in 
modem languages any person who was 
unable to speak the language in which he 
was going to be examined. She hoped 
in time that they would have a junior 
examination, such as the Junior School 
Examination of the University of London, 
in which an oral test was compulsory, and 
in which success must be obtained before 
the pupils were allowed to take any written 
test. There was a time when it would be 
good to introduce translation, but in a 
school where the leaving age was about 
eighteen she would not think of intro- 
ducing translation before the Lower Fifth 
Form. Mr. Kirkman had said that he 
would banish translation altogether from 
the school, and that he hoped that people 
would not introduce translation until the 
student had mastered the rudiments of 
his own or a foreign language. 

Mr. KiBKMAN : I did not say banish 
translation altogether from the schools. 

Miss Shsabson said that she was sorry 
that she had mistaken him, but she cer- 
tainly understood him to say so. It had 
been her experience to find that those 
who were the greatest opponents of the 



56 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Refonners were thoee who had tried 
many methods and perseyered in none. 
If they would take up only one method 
with their heart and sonl, although it 
might be a bad one, and press on hard 
with it, they would certainly achieve 
more than if they took up all sorts of 
methods one after another, persevering in 
none. In ten years it was plainly im- 
possible to do justice to more than one, 
or possibly two, methods. She hoped that 
any persons who were being converted 
that morning would remember to stick to 
one method, and persevere with it to the 
very end. They would not regret doing so 
if they did it properly. 

Miss NsuMANX (Harrow) said that she 
felt grateful to Mr. Moriarty for having 
suggested a compromise, for she felt very 
strongly that a compromise was wanted. 
One lesson a week in reading an casebook 
which the girls could understand, and 
. upon which the teacher could question 
them, would be a very good practice. As 
to composition being deferred to the Sixth 
Form, she entirely disagreed with it Com- 
position, she believed, should be introduced 
as early as possible. What she generally 
did for the lower forms was to write a 
composition herself, and give it to the 
pupils to put into French or German. In 
the Sixth Form she gave the girls any piece 
of composition, sometimes a newspaper 
cutting. She had had a great deal of ex- 
perience in that practice, and she found it 
answered very well. 

Miss Matthewh said that some people 
spoke as if they thought that in the ele- 
mentary stages of language teaching Re- 
fonn teachers started with abstract words, 
whereas very few Reformers did so. There 
was no doubt whatever that children re- 
membered words signifying actions, if 
they could perform the actions themselves, 
and in that way a very laige number of 
verbs could be learned ; and, as they all 
knew, verbs were one of the crucial points 
in language teaching. There was a great 
variety of ways in which abstract terms 
could be approached. One, of course, was 
translation ; and this, at a certain point, 



was sometimes unavoidable. When one 
abstract word had been given they could, 
sooner or later, come to its opposite, and 
surely the opposite term might easily be 
explained by telling them, in the language 
itself, that it was the opposite of the word 
which they had already learnt. A very 
large number of words could be treated in 
this way. She agreed very heartily with 
what Miss [Shearson said with regard to 
sentences rather than words. In inspecting 
a large giiis' school recently she was very 
much struck with the different kinds of 
teaching. She found that in one or two 
classes the stress had been laid upon words 
rather than upon sentences ; and, as might 
naturally be expected, the results in those 
forms were not as satisfactory as those in 
the forms in which they had been working 
with sentences. With regard to using only 
the minimum of translation, the point had 
been^made that they should make the 
French or German atmosphere as strong 
as possible, and there was no doubt that 
the interpolation of even one English word 
sent the pupil's mind back into an English 
strain. When in France she had on cer- 
tain days been told that she was more 
English than usual. This was invariably 
due to the fact that she had received an 
interesting letter from home, or had had a 
few minutes' conversation with an English 
person. It was far more difficult to re- 
cover the foreign strain than to lose it 
The foreign atmosphere should be kept up 
in the class-room as much as possible. Of 
course, English must be used when neces- 
sary. They must not make a fetish of 
' no translation. ' With regard to testing, 
was it not possible to do it far more quickly 
with questions and answers ; and would 
not that method keep the class more on 
the alert than it would be otherwise? 
Miss Shearson had said that she hoped that 
no candidate would be admitted to an ex- 
amination without an oral test, and so far 
she agreed with her. But, then, Miss 
Shearson said she hoped that there would 
be an oral test in the junior examinations. 
She (Miss Matthews) did not agree with 
junior examinations at all, and hoped we 



THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION 



57 



should soon be able to abolish them. 
With regard to translating a French classic 
work, or a German classic work, word for 
word, it seemed to her that that method 
was dead against their main aim. Was 
not one of the chief aims to teach literature, 
and to get the children into contact with 
the foreign mind ? If they translated every- 
thing word for word, would the children be 
thinlring of the sense of what they were 
reading as a whole? Would they not 
think of the passage sentence by sentence, 
or even word by word, rather than as a 
whole T Even if after translating it they 
went through it again rapidly, would they 
haye time to get the literary feeling of the 
composition? The literary feeling was 
what they wanted to secure. 

Monsienr Camxblynck addressed the 
meeting in French, giving an interesting 
account of recent progress in modem 
language methods in France. 

The Chairman (Lord Fitzmaurioe) : 
Ladies and gentlemen, I think the hour 
has now come, according to the agenda 
which has been placed in my hands, when 
this gathering should adjourn for lunch. 
I regret to have to say that I shall not be 
able to have the pleasure and advantage 
of being here this afternoon, because I 
shall be called away by other duties, the 
nature of which I think you know. I 
can only say for myself— and I am sure I 
am expressing your feelings as well as my 
own — that we have had a most interesting 
discussion on a very difficult topic. Not 
being an expert, I am not going to be so 
rash as to express any opinion on the 
various very technical points which have 
been discussed with such admirable 
lucidity by those who have addressed the 
meeting. I can only say, to encourage 
those who might otherwise feel discouraged 
by the differences of opinion which have 
been, expressed, that this is a very old 
question, upon which very eminent people 
have long been obliged, up to a certain 
extent, to disagree, meanwhile hoping that 
by such discussions as this a solution satis- 
factory to both parties might be found. 
This was very much borne in upon my 



mind a little time ago, for I remember 
that, when I was engaged upon collecting 
materials for the Life of Lord Granville 
which I wrote not long ago, I came upon 
a long correspondence upon this very 
point, renewed at different times, between 
Lord Granville — ^when he was Chancellor 
of the University of London — and Mr. 
George Grote — who was then Vice-Chan- 
cellor — the eminent liistorian of Greece. 
Lord Granville urged very much the im- 
portance of the oral knowledge and teach- 
ing of modem languages, especially 
French ; whilst Mr. Grote, his Vice- 
Chancellor — who, I think, eventually was 
brought round to Lord Granville's view — 
certainly at starting thought that the 
literary teaching alone was the only thing 
that should be given under the direction 
and aegis of the great University of which 
he and Lord Granville were the two 
principal officers. From that we can see 
what a very difficult matter this question 
is. Lord Granville, no doubt, was looking 
at it from one point of view, not unnatur- 
aUy; and Mr. Grote, equally naturally, 
was looking at it from another point of 
view. Lord Granville was looking at it 
from the point of view of a man engaged 
in diplomacy and foreign afiDedrs and con- 
stantly meeting foreigners, and therefore 
very conscious himself of the value of the 
power of the mutual exchange of ideas in 
conversation. Mr. Grote, on the other 
hand, was one of our greatest literary men, 
and was conscious of the immense value 
of language, whether ancient or modem, 
as a matter of mental training. What, I 
suppose, this society and kindred societies 
have to do is to try to find the best solu- 
tion by means of discussions of this kind. 
The only other observation which I 
have to make is this — it has been made 
already, especially by cue of the speakers 
— it is that we always have to bear in mind 
the length of training which the pupil 
with whom we are dealing is likely to 
be able to obtain. I have been until 
recently very largely concerned with an 
attempt to organize special education in 
a county in the West of England, where 



58 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



for 'many yean I was Chairman of the 
Ooonty Council, and a long time Chairman 
of the Education Committee. There yon 
haye, for example, to deal with secondary 
sohools that haye been very largely called 
into existence by the work of our local 
authorities. You have to deal very lai*gely 
with children who leave school early ; and 
to a certain extent I think that, with 
regard to this matter of oral and literary 
teaching, you have to condition all your 
•pinions by thinking whether the school 
with which you have to deal is what, in 
the language of a Royal Commission, is 
called a 'second-grade secondary school/ 
or whether it is a first-grade secondary 
school, where you will be able to carry on 
the education of the pupils a great deal 
later. 

These are the only observations which 
I will venture to make. Perhaps, speak- 
ing, as I am, as an amateur in the 
presence of so many experts, it may seem 



almost rash for me to say even as much as 
I have done. It is a very long time since 
I have had any practical experience in 
connexion with education, but I have not 
forgotten that at one time in my life, 
which I look back upon with pride, I was 
an examiner for my University of Gam- 
bridge in the early days of the attempt to 
bring in literary instruction, and in that 
way I did obtain some little praotiaal 
knowledge on this question, and I have 
always regretted that I was not able to 
carry on that work later than I did. But 
at least that early training has done one 
thing for me : it has made me feel a great 
sympathy with the efforts of the members 
in such societies as ours ; and it has also 
had this further advantage: that it has 
made me thoroughly conscious of the 
great extent of the subject. I am some- 
times inclined to think that the difficulties 
which surround it are not always suffi- 
ciently appreciated by our critics. 



DISCUSSION COLUMN. 



After some deliberation it has been 
decided to select for discussion the 
question IFhat is the best method of 
public examinaiion and inspection ? 

Another subject suggested was 
the Teaching of Free Composition, 
but it was felt that this was too 
restricted in its scope, and could be 
dealt with adequately in another 
way. 

The following syllabus will pro- 
bably be helpful in keeping before 
the contributors the main points 
covered by the above question : 

1. Does the existing multiplicity 
of examining and inspecting bodies 
conduce to efficiency ? If not, why 1 

2. Has an examining body a 
right to impose by the character of 
the papers it sets any particular 



method of teaching upon the 
schools? If not, should it set 
alternative papers adapted to the 
requirements of the rival methods 1 

3. If the examining body is to 
limit itself to testing work done, 
what standard of attainment should 
it exact at each stage? Assuming 
this limitation of its function, is 
there any objection to the Pre- 
liminary and Junior Locals? 

4. What is the best method of 
testing ability to understand the 
written language? 

5. Testing ability to write the 
language? Value of dictation. 
Translation of English sentences 
into the foreign language. Trans- 
lation of continuous English prose. 
Free composition. What form 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



59 



should the latter takeY Should 
it test composition and thought, as 
well as language? Should there 
be any questions on grammar, and 
what form should they takel Are 
direct questions such as the follow- 
ing allowable t — 

(a) Give the third person singular 
oiprendre^ etc. 

(b) Oive examples to illustrate 
the use of ... . 

(e) Oive the rule for the .... 

6. Testing ability to speak the 
language? Should the conversation 
test be based — (a) on a set book; 
(6) on an unseen passage read by 
the candidate; (e) on general topics; 
{d) on pictures given to the candi- 
date? 

7. Testing ability to understand 
the spoken language? Should 
there be a test independent of the 
one in No. 6 ? 

8. Pronunciation. Is a reading 
test necessary? 



9. What, in conclusion, should 
form the constituent parts of the 
test, and what percentage of marks 
should be given to each ? 

10. Inspection. By what body 
or bodies ? How often ? How best 
conducted, and with what aim or 
aims? 

11. Thequalifications of inspectors 
and examiners. 

Members are urged not to vxiU to be 
invited to contribuiey and to make 
every effort to contribute. The 
importance of the problem above 
outlined can hardly be exaggerated. 
It is one with which the Committee 
of the Association has to deal, but 
with which it can only deal effec- 
tively if it can draw freely upon 
the experience of the members. 
Contributions for the next number 
should be sent within two weeks 
of the issue of the present number 
to Mr. F. B. Kirkman, 19, Dart- 
mouth Park Hill, London, N.W. 



REPORT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION FOR 1907. 



Wk gather &om the Report of the Board 
of Sducation for 1907 the following notes 
on modem languages in secondary schools. 
The arrangement with the Prussian 
KnUugministerium for placing English 
modem language masters in Pmssian 
schools and German modem language 
masters in English schools is on the point 
of being extended to women. The work- 
ing of the scheme in the case of men has 
been most satisfactoiy. During the year 
ending July 81, 1907, 42 Assistants— 25 
men and 17 women— have been placed in 
France, and 8 men in Germany. To posts 
as r^Miriees in French ^looles Normales 
86 yoong women have been appointed. 
The Admiralty's scheme for sending abroad 



young Paymasters' clerks who have don 
well in a modem language at their entran 
examination has continued to work satis- 
factorily. Ten young clerks have been 
recently sent to France under this scheme. 
Of training-college students, 29 (7 men 
and 22 women) have been allowed to 
spend the third year abroad. The lin- 
guistic results, as gauged by an oral 
test, are, on the whole, satisfactory, and 
distinctly better than those of last year ; 
but the Board are of opinion that if 
residence abroad is to increase the pro- 
fessional capacity of teachers, it is advis- 
able to postpone it till they have had 
more practical exi)erience of teaching than 
can be obtained in a training college. 



60 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Hence in future the third year of train- 
ing, if it is to be spent abroad, will be 
postponed till the student has spent not 
leas tlian two years, and not more than 
four years, in actual school-work. Some 
exception will, however, be made in the 
case of third-yeai' students with a high 
standard of knowledge in the foreign 
language, and who have specialized in it 
with a view to teaching in higher ele- 
mentary schools. 

In the section of the Report dealing 
with secondary schools, the views of the 
Board on the teaching of Latin are 
rehearsed — views which are so well known 
that there is no need to dwell upon them 
here. The reformed scheme of Latin 
Pronunciation adopted by the Classical 
Association has been recommended for use 
in schools. A special grant has been made 
to the Perse School, Cambridge, on account 
of the experiment there being made in the 
application to classics of new methods of 
language teaching. 



The work in modem languages in the 
Welsh secondary schools is reiK)rted as 
good in the upper and middle stages, but 
very uneven in the junior stage. Grerman 
in Wales, as in England, is finding 
difficulty in maintaining its position, for 
it is taught in only ten schools. This the 
Board considers unfortunate, for the 
educational arguments which give a 
preference to French rather than German 
as a first language in the case of English- 
speaking people do not hold in the case of 
children speaking Welsh. 

To the decay of German in English 
schools there is no reference in the Report. 
The only. allusions to the work actually 
being done in secondary schools are to 
domestic subjects in girls' schools, natural 
science in country schools, and music 
It is curious that for information about 
German in English schools wc must turn 
either to the section dealing witli Wales 
or to the Report of the Scotch Education 
Department. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 



Thx first meeting of the General Com- 
mittee for 1908 was held at the College of 
Preceptors on Saturday, January 25. 

Present: Messrs. Allpress, Andrews, 
Ton Glchn, Button, Miss Matthews, 
Messrs. Milner-Barry, Norman, Payen- 
Payne, Pollard, Rippmann, Robertson, 
Miss Shearson, Messrs. Storr, Twentyman, 
and the Hon. Secretary. 

Letters regretting inability to attend 
were received from Professor Atkins, Miss 
Batchelor, Dr. Braunholtz, Messrs. 
Houghton, Eirkman, Latham, Miss Lowe, 
Miss Morley, Miss Pope, Mr. Somerville, 
and Professor Schiiddekopf. 

Mr.Twentymanatfirst, and Mr. Milner- 
Barry subsequently, took the chair. 

Mr. A. A. Somerville ^I'as elected Chair- 
man for the year, Mr. E. L. Milner-Barry 
Yioe-Chairman, Mr. Allpress Hon. Trea- 
surer, and Mr. G. F. Bridge Hon. Secre- 
tary. 



The minutes of the last meeting were 
read and confirmed. 

Mr. Storr was co-opted a member of the 
General Committee. 

The following were elected to serve on 
the Executive Committee: Professor 
Atkins, Miss Batchelor, Dr. Breul, Dr. 
Edwards, Mr. Eve, Professor Fiedler, 
Messrs. von Glehn, Hutton, Kirkman, 
Miss Morley, Messrs. Payen- Payne, 
Pollard, Miss Shearson, Messrs. Storr and 
Twenty man. 

Mr. F. Storr, Rev. E. S. Roberts, Vice- 
Chancellor of Cambridge University, and 
Mr. H. T. Warren, Vice-Chancellor of 
Oxford University, were elected Vice- 
Presidents. 

The Committee then considered the 
resolution passed by the General Meeting 
on the position of German in secondary 
schools, and it was resolved to organise, 
in ooigunction with otlier bodies, a depa- 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 



61 



tation to the Board of Education on the 
subject. The following were appointed a 
sab-committee to take steps in the matter : 
Dr. Breul, Messrs. Bridge, Eve, Gregory 
Foster, Kahn, Milner-Bajrry, Pollard, Dr. 
F. Rose. [Professors Fiedler, Robertson, 
Schiiddekopf and Mr. Storr have been 
since added to the sub-committee.] 

Mr. Norman called the attention of the 
Committee to the position of French in 
preparatory schools, and after some dis- 
cnssion the matter was referred to the 
Execntiye Committee, as were also the 
resolations submitted by Mr. Kirkman to 
the General Meeting in connexion with 
the Report on the Conditions of Modem 
Language Teaching in Schools. 

Miss Donne was appointed local secre- 
tary for West Sussex. 

The following fifteen new members were 
elected : 

A. T. Q. Bluett, Bingley Grammar 
School, Yorks. 

D. J. Davies, B.A., Ph.D., 7, Grafton 
Place, Glasgow. 

Miss H. C. Davis, Girls' High School, 
Wakefield. 

W. Dazeley, B.A., B.So., Bingley 
Grammar School, Torks. 



Miss J. L. Duncan. St Andrews, Clay- 
ton Road, Newcastle-on-Tyne. 

Miss C. S. Finlayson, 10, Park Man- 
sions, Henry Street, St. John's Wood, 
N.W. 

Miss H. Graham, Girls' High School, 
Wakefield. 

Miss F. Greatbach, 6. A., Wandsworth 
Secondary School, S.W. 

A. K Marley, Institut Concordia, 
Zurich. 

A. Palmer, Secondary School, North 
Shields. 

J. A. Perret, Officier de I'lnstruction 
Publique, Surrey House, 37, The Grove, 
Hammersmith, W. 

Miss G. A. Spink, Sandal, near Wake- 
field. 

C. C. Stronge, B.A., Windermere 
Grammar SchooL 

Howard Swan, 1, Albemarle Street, W. 

Miss F. K Watson, Heidelberg CoU^, 
Ealing. 

Miss R. Wells, Grove House School, 
Bowdon, Cheshire. 

The Finance, Exhibition, Holiday 
Courses, and Publications Sub-Com- 
mittees having been appointed, the Com- 
mittee adjourned. 



REVIEWS. 



Vaiee Training in Speech and Song, By 
H. H. HuLBBRT. (Clive.) Pi), xii+83. 
Price Is. dd. 
Sources and Sounds of the English Lan- 
guage, By D. Maointyrs. (Ralph, 
Holland.) Pp. 77. Price Is. 
The first of these books contains a good 
account of the organs of speech, with 
useftil hints on breathing, such as we 
expect from the author of Breathing for 
Voice Production — a valuable book with 
excellent exercises. The sections which 
deal with phonetics are less satisfactory, 
and Mr. Hulbert would have done well to 
submit these in proof to Mr. Dnmville, 
who is writing a manual of phonetics for 
teachers, also to be issued by the University 
Tutorial Press. Mr. Hulbert's use of the 
phonetic transcript is unsatisfactory, and 



suggests that he is but indifferently 
acquainted with it. His symbol for the 
vowel sound in ' nook ' is [u] ; that for 
the vowel sound in ' father 'is [a :] ; and 
the vowel sounds in * nay ' he represents 
as [et] or [e :]. He uses such expressions 
as 'The vibrating air (the voice) being 
focussed in the nose,' which to a beginner 
must be unintelligible. Again, he says 
that for producing m and n *the voice 
must be placed well forward in the nose.' 
Many points of importance are touched 
very lightly indeed. The remarks on the 
art of speaking and reading are sound, but 
all too brief. The repeated occurrence of 
split infinitives jars in a book intended 
for teachers. 
Mr. Macintyre gives many things in 



62 



MODERN LANGI/AGE TEACHING 



the seventy ptges of his text. We do not 
propoee to speak of those sections of his 
book which deal with the Sources of the 
£!ngliBh Language; Contributions to our 
Vocabulary ; Lancashire, Yorkshire, and 
Scottish Dialects. It is rather our pur- 
pose to warn our readers against the 
author's chapters on phonetics, which give 
evidence of a very poor knowledge of the 
subject, displayed in a very poor style. 
The attention devoted to phonetics in the 
Begtilationi for the Training of Teachers, 
issued by the Board of Education, is 
responsible for the issue of such books; 
and much harm may be done if those who 
enter upon the study of this valuable 
subject have a misleading introduction to 
it placed in their hands. In support of 
our contention that this book is mis- 
leading, we give a few sentences from it 
which will suffice for those who know : ' A 
consonant must have a vowel to help it to 
make a sound. . . . The vowel sounds i and 
u have the nan-owest opening of the lips, 
the tongue also being raised as high as 
possible, so as to touch [sic] the hard and 
soft palate respectively. . . . When con- 
sonants are pronounced there is a stoppage 
of the breath. ... [In the case of r] 
there is the closing of the lips and also the 
rapid opening, the combined action being 
called trilling. ... In the articulation 
of h the glottis is closed as far as possible 
without producing vibration. ... In 
grammar the first a is long. ... In 
adieu we have level stress.' It is astound- 
ing that one with so littie first-hand 
knowledge should venture to write on 
phonetics. To treat it even in a simple 
fashion requires a far deeper knowledge 
than is possessed by Mr. Macintjrre. 

Shakespeare: Macbeth. Erkliirt von H. 
Conrad. Berlin : Weidmannische 
Buchhandlung. 1907. Pp. zzzix-f- 
100. Anmerkungen, pp. 104. M. 4.40. 
This book is well printed in good type. 
The notes are bound in a separate pam- 
phlet, which fits into an envelope in the 
cover of the main volume — a convenient 
plan, which obviates the endless turning 
over-leaf which is usually so disturbing to 



the reader's comfort when he oonsults 
annotated editions. 

Herr Conrad deals chiefly with metrical 
and philological problems, and his intro- 
duction and notes are scholarly, interest- 
ing and independent His consideration 
of the internal evidence for the date of 
the play is most careful, and while his 
conclusions agree with those generally 
accepted, he does not reach them only 
by the paths usually followed. Thus, he 
rejects many of the metrical tests ordinarily 
applied, and maintains that Shakespean 
comparatively seldom writes iambic penta- 
meter verse. He holds that alexandrines 
are common in all the late plays, and that 
aa many as forty-six occur in one thousand 
lines in Macbeth, Herr Conrad does not 
accept the verse-division usually adopted, 
and, consequentiy, it is essential to examine 
his own text when criticizing his remarks 
on Shakespeare's metre. The notes explain 
satisfactorily most textual and verbal diffi- 
culties, and they are always emphatic, 
though not invariably convincing. For 
example, the alteration of ' weird sisters ' 
to ' wayward ' is disturbing, and the reason 
given for the change~-that the poet knew 
nothing of Northern mythology — ^is in- 
adequate. Herr Conrad always has the 
courage of his opinions. Thus, he is not 
only quite certain that meet of the second 
scene is spurious, but he knows also 
exactly which lines are or are not genuine : 
it is USricMe TU/telei to question the 
reality of Lady Macbeth's swoon (II. iii) ; 
the current explanation of I. ii 49 is 
'impossible'; and he overlooks the fact 
that his own interpretation coincides with 
that of the old Clarendon Press edition. 
On the whole, however, the notes succeed 
in clearing up many difficulties, and the 
editor accomplishes that which he attempts. 
He epitomizes the result of the latest 
scholarly investigations on the language 
and versification of Macbeth. 

It is true that we miss the illuminating 
literary criticism of Mr. Verity's Students* 
Shakespeare. There is little or nothing 
in the notes to kindle enthusiasm for 
the play as drama or as poetry, nor do 



REVIEWS 



63 



they east much light on the charaoten. 
Bat the work attempted is well done, 
and the edition ie distinctly nsefiil and 
scholarly. 

The Oa^ord Book of French Verse, Chosen 

by St. John Lucas, xxxy+492 pp. 

Oxford : Clarendon Press. Price 68. net ; 

on India paper 7s. 6d. net. 

This is an altogether charming antho- 
logy. Greatly daring, Mr. Lacas has suc- 
ceeded in condensing an account of French 
verse into an Introduction of thirty pages. 
He shows that he has read eztensiyely, 
and with good taste, and we are thus pre- 
pared for a grand pageant, taking us from 
the twelfth century to the nineteenth. 
Those who have an affection for the Middle 
Ages may perhaps feel that a few more 
pages might haye been spared for some of 
their fayourite lyrics, and that, if neces- 
sary, room might haye been made by the 
exclusion of minor poets represented by a 
single poem of no great value, who seem 
to havB received a place out of sheer 
charity. To the one poem from the 
twelfth century and the one from the 
thirteenth we would gladly have added a 
dozen. Charles d'Orl^ans and Villon are 
well represented, and the Pl^iade almost 
too well ; but, then, they have become 
fashionable lately. Some of Comeille's 
religious verse might well have been 
added, and it had almost been better to 
omit Moli^ than to print only a sonnet 
of his. If only lyric verse in the strict 
sense had been admitted, we should under- 
stand the editor's difficulty ; but if he 
printed a satire by Regnier and an epistle 
by Boileau, he might have given us some 
speeches from the Misanthrope or the 
Femtmes Sa/oanUs, The eighteenth century 
yields but a poor harvest Ch^nier's im- 
portance is rightly emphasised, both in 
the Introduction and by the excellent 
selection from his crystal verse. Half the 
book is given to the nineteenth century, 
and the selection could not easily be 
bettered. Brief notes are added, in which 
some biographical details are supplied and 
difficult words are explained. We con- 
gratulate Mr. Lucas on his fine piece of 



work and, the Clarendon Press on their 
printing, which, except for the title-page 
and the ugly italic numbers, is most 
creditable. 

French Lessons on the Direct Method. By 
Marc Ceppi. London : Hachette, 1907. 
Price Is. 6d. 

Of the many books on the new method 
which have poured from the press during 
the last ten years, probably none have won 
for themselves a permanent place in our 
school system except those that have first 
been beaten out in class on the anvil of 
experience. Of such a nature is t!nrboo|(. 



before us, a conscientious and, appdr^kitlj^; 
skilful bit of work by a practised teacher 
who seems to have a sound grasp of new 
method principles. It is intended as a 
continuation to any textbook fbunded on 
Holzel's "Pictures of the Four Seasons,'* 
and assumes a knowledge of the vocabulary 
acquired by a class accustomed to their 
use. Only experience of the course can 
decide definitely upon the success of the 
experiment ; but those who have not yet 
discovered their ideal in the many existing 
first and second year courses might do 
worse than give this book a trial. 

From Messrs. Hachette we have received 
a copy of their excellent Almanachf which 
well deserves its sub-title : Petite Bncyclo- 
pidie poptUaire de la Vie pratique. It is 
reaUy remarkable what is here offered for 
half a crown : statistics, pictures, maps, 
hints, recipes, suggestions. We have even 
found a page showing Comment une jolie 
bouche prononce les voyelles. It would be 
a capital book to add to the form library. 

From the same publishers we have re- 
ceived the annual volume (price 9 francs) 
of their excellent magazine Lectures pour 
Tous, It is full of good pictures and 
readable stories and articles. Tliose in 
search of a suitable illustrated magazine 
for their pupils could not do better than 
order this one. The bound volumes will 
form a valuable addition to the school 
library. 

If readers have some money to spend on 
illustrated books they should haye a good 



; V 



/. 



64 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACfflNG 



look at Messrs. Hachette's Ccdalotfue dc 
Livres dCElrennes and Livres Uluatris pour 
lea DiatrUnUions de Prix, where they will 
find hooks to suit all pursee and all tastes. 



The same pnhlishers have reoently issued 
a very convenient Sdect Liatof French and 
Gertnan Booha suitable for Prizea and 
Presentation. 



FROM HERE AND THERE. 



Dttblik University.— Tlie degree of 
D.Litt. has been conferred upon lir. 
Harold littledalo, Professor of English 
Literature, University College, Cardiff. 
Ik % % 
Edinburgh University. — Miss Jane 
Weightmann, M.A., has been appointed 
Assistant Lecturer in Plionetios. 

^ ^ ^ 
Naopur Morris College.— Tlie Secre- 
tary of State has appointed Mr. Alfred 



Charles Bray, B.A.. of Jesus College 
Cambridge, to be Professor of English. 
% % % 
By an arrangement made with the 
Soci^t^ des Langues Yivantcs members of 
the Association can receive Lea Languea 
Modemea, the journal of the Society, for a 
subscription of 2s. 9d. a year. Those who 
wish to subscribe should vrrite to the Hon 
Secretary, at 45, South Hill Park, Hamp- 
stead, N.W., who will bo glad to send a 
specimen copy to anyone desiring it. 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



Journal op Education, January, 1908: 
Shakespeare's School (A. F. Leach) ; 
Directory of Educational Associations. 
February. 1908: Should the Stote take 
Charge of Secondary Education? (G. H. 
Clarke); The True Inwardness of Moral 
Instruction in France (C. Brereton) ; Life 
in a French Government School (Kathleen 
M. Jackson) ; Reports of Annual Meetings. 

School World, December, 1908 : Class- 
room Phonetics — III. (H. O'Grady). 
jrrTTL. January, 1908 : Junior Examinations in 
'/M'^V'Ji^Ush Literature (J. Oliphant); The 
QB^Horation of the Secondary - school 
Master (G. H. Clarke) ; The Most Notable 
" *M*)^ Jgooks in 1907. February, 1908 : 
Pflj^M^V^' loquitur (H. W. Atkinson). 

Educational Times, December, 1907 : 
' ' ' V^y Boys ijo to School : the Boys* Own 
Ideae-^ft-tlre Subject (J. L. Paton). 

School, December, 1907 : Some Befleo- 
tions on a Holiday Course [Neuwied] (E. 
Sharwood Smith). January, 1908 : On 
the Greatest Living Language (C. S. 
Bremner). February, 1908 : The State as 
Schoolmaster (G. H. Clarke) ; Must Ger- 



man disappear from the Curriculum ! 
(J. Drever). 

The A. M. A, November, 1907 : Is In- 
spection Helpful to Assistant Masters! 
(H. Richardson). December, 1 907 : English 
Teaching in American High Schools 
(H. J. Tiffen). 

Les Lanoues MoDERiHEs, December, 
1907: L'^J^hange International des En- 
fants pendant I'Annee 1907. January, 
1908 : Les Langues Modemes et la Litt6ra- 
ture (A. Croiset). 

Die Neueken Sprachen, December. 
1907 : Die Muttersprache im Fremd- 
sprachlichen Unterricht — IV. (H. Biittner). 
January, 1908 : Die Muttersprache un 
Fremdsprachlichen Unterricht — V. (H. 
Biittner) ; Die neuere franzosische Littera- 
turgeschichte im Seminarbetrieb unserer 
Universitaten (H. Schneegans). 

Bollettino di Filolooia Moderna, 
December, 1907 : Giosu^ Carduod (James 
Geddes) ; Questioni di metodo (G. Gulli). 
January, 1908 : La copia neir apprendi- 
mento delle lingue straniere (G. Gulli) ; 
Le Fran9ais de la Suisse romande (A. 
Andr6). 



MODERN LANiGUAGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH TBB ASSISTANCE OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A, A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. No. 3 



APRIL, 1908 



BEPORT ON THE CONDITIONS OF MODERN (FOREIGN) 
LANGUAGE INSTRUCTION IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS.* 



m. 

Conditions that Militate 

against the efficiency 

OF Modern Language 

Instruction. 

§ 11. Bwtra/nce ai a late stage^ and 
m 9ome eases ai ihe beginning of any 
lerm, ofptqnh knowing no foreign Ian- 
^uage and intending only to stay a 
fear or hoo. Information on this 
head was not specifically demanded, 



but it was volunteered by nearly 
forty schools, and the opinions 
given are evidently the expression 
of a widespread grievanca The 
returns may be left to speak for 
themselves, (a) QirW School : ' The 
ohief hindrance in Modem Language 
work is in the fact that so many 
pupils at different ages come into 
the school with no previous know- 
ledge of FrencL' The return ex- 
emplifies this by the following 
table: 



TABLE H. 



CUn. 


Avontge Ago. 


Total Pupils. j BegiDoen from Outside. 


II. 
III. 

IVft. 
IVa. 


10-9 
12-8 
14 1 
15*4 


22 
24 
23 

18 


14 
9 
2 



* For S§ 1-10 see pp.l8d and following. 



66 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



(b) Grammar School : * A great 
number of these late-comers (from 
elementary schools) remain only 
one or, at most, two years. Some 
stay less than the year, and evi- 
dently only come in order to be 
able to say they were *' educated at 
the grammar school." . . . Such 
boys must begin six new subjects at 
once in the III.'s.' (c) Boys^ Schools : 
'The most serious drawback from 
which Modem Language work 
suffers at this school, and which 
makes a well-organized course next 
to impossible, is the influx of new 
boys who do not know any FrencL 
This takes place at all times of the 
school year. I give these scholars 
private coaching free of charge in the 
interests of the general work.' 
{d) QirW High School: «A very 
large proportion enter at fourteen 
or fifteen, and leave after two years. 
They ruin the work of their forms, 
and can get very little out of the 
time they spend at school.' {e) Smatt 
County School for Boys : * We nearly 
always have new boys at Christmas 
and Easter; they have to go into 
the form which has done one or 
two terms' French. This is the 
most heart-breaking and hopeless 
difficulty with which a small school 
like oiurs can have to contend.' 

§ 12. Lack of Funds.— The extent 
to which instruction suffers from 
lack of funds is not made clear by 
the return, for information was only 
occasionally supplied under the 
general head of < conditions affecting 
efficiency.' But what emerges very 
clearly is the inequality of the 
financial support meted out to the 



schools. One school may have, to 
quote a return, 'nothing to com- 
plain of,' while in another over- 
crowded children are being taught 
by ill-paid teachers on obsolete 
methods. In some the children are 
being penalized at the outset of 
their careers, in others they enjoy 
every educational advantage that 
money and experience can give. 
This treatment, which has the 
sanction neither of common sense 
nor equity, is inevitable as long as 
the schools are left to supplement 
the national grants out of funds 
which depend upon low and uncer- 
tain fees, unstable endowments, and 
the fluctuating and uncertain re- 
sources of local authorities. At 
the root of the impecuniosity of 
many of our schools lies the fact that 
in practice, if not in theory, educa- 
tion is still regarded as a parochial, 
and not a national, concern. 

The effect of inadequate funds 
upon the efficiency of the Modem 
Language instruction is seen — (a) in 
insufficient class-room accommoda- 
tion ; (b) in the enforced use of old- 
fashioned books and apparatus ; 
(c) in large classes ; and, (d) above all, 
in an underpaid and overworked 
staff From information kindly 
supplied by the Joint Agency for 
Women Teachers, the Joint Scholas- 
tic Agency (men), and Messrs. Gkib- 
bitas and Thring, it would appear 
that the salaries of assistant Modem 
Language teachers have tended to 
rise, owing to the increasing demand 
for persons qualified to teach by 
Seform methods. There has been 
an accompanying rise in the standard 



MODERN LANGUAGES IN SECONDARY SCHOOLS 67 



of qualification. But though the 
initial salary is fairly adequate, 
there still remains the all-impor- 
tant fact that) except in special 
eases, the post of assistant as such 
offers no prospect of a permanent 
livelihood. As only a minority 
can become head masters, this 
creates a serious situation, with 
which only a few authorities, like 
the London County Council, have 
found courage to deal The follow- 
ing table of the average salaries of 
Modem Language teachers, taken on 
a non-resident basis, is founded on 
information supplied by the above- 
mentioned scholastic agencies. The 
table leaves out of count the great 
public boarding-schools, and, on the 
other hand, arrangements on mutual 
terms: 



bered that the work out of school 
is shown to be much heavier in the 
case of the mistresses. It appears, 
indeed, that the latter are receiving 
for the same amount of work much 
smaller remuneration. The above 
hours could not be regarded as 
excessive under the old regime, but 
with the introduction of Reform 
methods they impose an intolerable 
strain. Our methods have out- 
stripped our organization, and the 
results are often disastrous to the 
health of the teacher, and, conse- 
quently, to the efficiency of the 
instruction. In the French secondary 
schools the maximum hours of class- 
work are, at present, in the lycdes 
seventeen, in the colUges eighteen. 
It should be our business to aim at 
least at a twenty-hours maximum. 



TABLE I. 



1 


s 


8 

ABsistant Maaten. 


4 
Auiatant MiatresMs. 


5 
L.C.C. 


1 

2 
3 


Highly qualified... 

Well qualified ... 

Minimum qualifi- 
cations 


jCISO, initial. 
^125, „ 


£110. initial 
£90, „ 

£80, „ 


Assistant masters, 
£150.ri8ingto£300. 
Assistant mistresses, 
£120,ri8ingto£220. 



Under this head may also be 
placed the excessive hours of class- 
teaching, which is at bottom a 
question of money. The scholastic 
agents place the average hours of 
class-work for masters at twenty- 
six per week. The corresponding 
figure for mistresses could not be 
ascertained. Table 6. gives it as 
about nineteen ; but in instituting 
comparisons it should be remem- 



§ 13. The Influence of External 
Examinations. — ^The Modern Lan- 
guage papers set by public exam- 
ining bodies not only serve to test 
progress, but also exert at present 
a considerable influence upon the 
methods used in the schools. This 
influence is declared by thirty=ieight 
out of the fifty-five returns that ex- 
press an opinion on the point to be 
unsatisfactory. These returns are, of 
6—2 



68 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



course, from schools using Reform 
methods, and they reiterate, with 
varying degrees of emphasis, the 
charge that the papers as now set^ 
in particular the grammar papers, 
act as a direct check to progress, 
and often necessitate in middle and 
upper forms reactionary modifica- 
tions of method. 

§ 14. Inadequate Inspection, — The 
schools making returns do not 
appear to have been equally fortu- 
nate in their inspectors. The fol- 
lowing expressions of opinion, 
arranged in a descending scale, will 
illustrate the fact : < Most helpful,' 

* most stimulating,' ' sympathetic 
and useful,' ' not harassing,' < not 
objectionable,' 'a harmless amuse- 
ment for the inspector,' 'superficial,' 

* useless.' Out of fprty-one ex- 
pressions of opinion, thirty-two were 
more or less unfavourable. The 
chief charge was that the inspectors 
were in many cases not specialists 
in modem languages; they required, 
to quote one return, * educating both 
in the subject and the methods of 
instruction.' But^ far from showing 
hostility to inspection in itself, 
return after return recognized its 
value, and more particularly dwelt 
upon the opportunity it gave to the 



open-minded and sjnnpathetic in- 
spector of comparing the progress 
of the Reform in various schools, 
and of placing at the disposal of all 
the assured results of individual 
experiments. What is asked for 
is less of the official coming to sit 
in judgment and more of the 
friendly adviser ready to discuss and 
exchange ideas with members of 
the staff, provided always that the 
adviser |s qualified by personal 
experience and special knowledge 
to command attention. A minor 
criticism is worth noting : it is that 
soine inspectors seemed unable to 
distinguish between examination 
and inspection. 

§ 15. Neglect of English Grammar 
and Pronunciation. — Several returns 
stated that Modem Language in- 
struction was considerably hindered 
by the lack of phonetic instruction in 
elementary schools, and the conse- 
quent difficulty of overcoming the 
obstacles to foreign pronunciation 
presented by strong and persistent 
local dialects. It was further hin- 
dered by the neglect of English 
grammar in both public elementary 
and other schools from which pupils 
were received. 



THE POSITION OP GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS.* 



Mr. Milnxr-Basry : I rise to move the 
following resolation : 

*That this meeting, considering it 
demrsble that greater encouragement 
should be given to the study of German 

* Discussion at the Annual General 
Meeting of the Modem Language Associa- 
tion on January 7, 1908. 



in schools, ui^ the Board of Education 
to reconsider its policy that where only 
two foreign languages are taueht in a 
school, one must be Latin, unless good 
reason can be shown for its omission.' 

I should like to state at the outset that 
this resolution is framed with special refer- 
ence to schools which are in receipt of a 
Board of Education grant That ia to 



THE POSITION OF GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 69 



Mj, the resolution does not apply to 
schools which may be termed non-local 
schools — to schools which, so far, are oat- 
side the jurisdiction of the Board of Educa- 
tion. I should also like to say that I 
move the resolution without any pngudice 
in favour of German as against French, 
because, for the last sixteen years, my time 
has been occupied in teaching French sets 
and German sets in about equal numbers, 
and I cannot say at the present time 
which work I have enjoyed most. In non- 
local schools the position of German is 
yery often this : it is taken as an alterna- 
tive to Greek in many cases, while in other 
cases, especially on the modem side of 
schools, French and German are the only 
languages taught ; so that in certain types 
of schools in this country we get a sort 
of rough-and-ready approximation to the 
three types of Grerman schools— the Gym- 
nasium, the Real Gymnasium, and the 
Oberrealschule. In the school with which 
I was connected for sixteen years, Mill 
Hill, we worked on that principle — that is 
to say, for classical boys, or semi-classical 
boys, Greek and German were altematiyes. 
Boys used to start these languages in the 
lower third form, having commenced Latin 
in the first form, and French in the second. 
And then, of course, we had the modem 
side, which did no classical work at all ; and 
we found that, as far as German was con- 
cerned, the system worked remarkably welL 
As for Greek, as compared with German, I 
suppose that our number of boys doing 
German was above five to one, and the only 
difficulty was that our German sets were 
considerably swollen, and we German 
masters felt that our Greek colleagues got 
ofi" rather lightly. 

In the Board of Education schools, which 
are in receipt of public money, the leaving 
age IS, as a rule, an age lower than it is in 
non-local schools ; it is very often sixteen. 
That operates, of course, to a certain 
extent, against anything in the form of an 
intensiye study of modem languages, and 
oertainly of Gorman, which is tiie last lan- 
guage begun, and which, as numerous 
correspondents have told me, very often 



goes to the wall in the stress of examina- 
tions, such as the Cambridge Local. A 
subject like German, which is only com- 
menced towards the close of the school 
career, is set aside when the pressure of the 
examination system makes itself felt, and, 
of course, in this way it is handicapped. 

I should like to read you the regulations 
of the Board of Education, as far as they 
deal with the question of languages. As 
most of you probably are aware, the regu- 
lations have been altered. They were 
altered last August ; but I will first'give 
you the old regulations, because I wish to 
contrast the new regulations with them. 
Of course, as we might sux)pose, the Board 
of Education starts with the customary 
eulogy of Latin : 

* The Board believe that in a thorou^^h 
linguistic and literary training for me 
stuaents of modem languages, Latin is a 
necessary factor, while as a means of intro- 
duction to the larger world of public affairs 
and international relations, or as an instra- 
ment of accurate expression for clear and 
logical thinking, no modem language can 
compare with French. The plaoe of Greek 
will naturally be that of the third lan- 
guage in a classical curriculum, while 
German will freauentl^ be the third lan- 
guage on the modem side, though in some 
schools Spanish, Italian, or another lui- 
guage may suitably be substituted for it.' 

The regulations which were issued last 
August are as follows : 

' The curriculum must provide instruo- 
tion in the English t Language and Litera- 
ture, at least one language other than 
English, Geography, History, Mathema- 
tics, Science, and Drawing. When two 
languages other than English are taken, 
and Latin is not one of them, the Board 
will require to be satisfied that the omis- 
sion of Xatin is for the educational advan- 
tage of the school' 

The next regulation is : 

'By special permission of the Board, 
languages other than EnsUsh may be 
omitted from the curriculum, provided 
that the Board are satisfied that the in- 
stroction in English provides special and 
adequate lingumio and literary training, 
and that the staff is qualified to give such 
instraction.' 

In other words, the Board of Education 
contemplates the creation of a tyj^ of 



70 



MODEKN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



secondary school in which no languages at 
all, other than English, are taught. 

With regard to the niimhers of pupils at 
present studying German in England, I 
owe my thanks to many corrc8])ondent8 for 
sending me figures ; more particularly to 
Mr. Kirkman, who has forwarded to me 
the following analysis. He writes : • The 
following result from my inquiiy-form on 
the conditions of modem language teaching 
in secondary schools may be of use to you. 
They apply almost exclusively to local 
schools — that is to say, Coimty, Grammar, 
High, Intermediate, and Municipal.' 
Those schools are exactly of the type 
which is in receipt of the Board of Educa- 
tion grant. The schools referred to are, 
boys' scliools, 52 ; girls' schools, 40 ; mixed, 
27 ; a total of 119 schools. The pupils 
taught French — that is to say, practically 
the whole of the pupils in the schools — are, 
in boys' schools, 6,782 ; in girls' schools, 
5,291 ; in mixed schools, 4,595 ; making a 
total for Frendi of 16,668. The pupils 
taught German are, in boys' schools, 1,862. 
In girls' schools, where, I think, we might 
reasonably expect that special attention 
should be paid to a second modem lan- 
guage, we got the following figure : Girls, 
765. In mixed schools there are 597 ; so 
that we get a total leaming German of 
3,224. I contend that those figures are 
▼ery eloquent, and that they prove to this 
Association — if proof were needed — that 
the position of German, not only in boys' 
schools, but in girls' schools, has reached 
a very parlous condition. 

With regard to girls' schools, I suffer in 
the second generation by this neglect of 
Qerman. One of my children attends an 
excellent Girls' High School, where the 
teaching is certainly remarkably success- 
fol ; but, unfortunately, Latin and French 
are compulsory, and she is obliged to do 
her German after the school session ends. 
She takes it in the afternoon, when it 
competes with music, extra drill, and 
other accomplishments. Needless to say, 
the number of girls who are leaming 
German in that school is very small. I 
do not think that last summer they were 



able to enter a single candidate for the 
Joint Board Examination in that subject ; 
and it strikes me, as a schoolmaster, that 
if you really wish to kill a subject aa 
speedily as possible, you must arrange for 
it to be taken out of school hours in com- 
petition with games. 

Perhaps I may complete this part of the 
subject by reading to you an extract from 
a book which has recently been published, 
called, ' English High Schools for Girls, ' 
by Miss S. A. Burstall. In speaking of 
the eurriculum. Miss Burstall writes as 
follows : * Next will come either Latin or 
German for those who have time and 
ability to loam more than one foreign 
language. Latin, at present, is elbowing 
German out of the curriculum in girls' 
schools. A clever girl can, however, 
learn all three, German last.' Now comes 
a passage to which I would specially direct 
your attention. I do not know whether 
you will endorse it or not: 'Latin has 
such value in grammatical training, and 
as an aid to the 'study of English, that 
even two years of it are worth having. 
We have never heard a woman regret 
having Icamt Latin, even a little Latin, 
in her youth. We have hoard many a 
one regret ignorance of it. Rome lies 
like a groat rock at the basis of the 
civilization of Western Europe, and no 
person is cbmpletely educated who knows 
nothing of Latin.' 

I should like to re-write that passage as 
I think it might be written as applicable 
to German, and I have attempted to do 
so: 'German has such value in gram- 
matical training, and as an aid to the 
study of English, that even two years of 
it are worth having. We have never 
heard a woman regret having leamt 
German, even a little German, in her 
youth. We have heard many a one 
regret ignorance of it. Since the time of 
the Reformation there has been no more 
striking phenomenon in Europe than the 
evolution of modem Germany as a great 
power. Germany is, therefore, of immense 
interest to the historian and the politician. 
Bound as we are by close ties of kinship 



THE POSITION OF GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 71 



to the German nation, we, as a people, 
cannot afford to allow our children to 
grow np in ignorance of her langaage, her 
literatore, her institutions, and her con- 
tributions to the advancement of science. 
Svery child should, therefore, have an 
opportunity of learning German.' 

May I now pass for a moment to another 
part of the United Kingdom, and direct 
your attention to a passage in the Report 
of the Scotch Educational Department for 
1907 : * It is much to be regretted that 
German can hardly be said to be holding 
its ground. At the same time, it appears 
to be chiefly in the smaller schools that 
its popularity has diminished. The causes 
of the decline are obscure, but, at least, 
they are not peculiar to Scotland. In- 
quiry shows that in England the phe- 
nomenon is even more strikingly apparent. ' 
My correspondent (who shall be nameless) 
adds the following rider : ' Why do we 
not have reports of this kind from the 
£ngUsh Board of Education about what 
is happening in English schools ?' 

I think that I have already said enough 
to convince you that there is some ground 
for viewing with considerable apprehen- 
sion the decay which is being accelerated 
with regard to the study of German in 
this country. The curious part of the 
matter is that, while we seem determined 
in a certain number of our schools to make 
the matter of learning German as difficult 
as possible, in the higher branches of 
education provision is being made for 
students of German. In the last few 
years many professorships of French and 
German have been founded at the Univer- 
sities ; in fact, I think that thero is now 
only one noteworthy exception. And 
while we are, as it were, providing a roof 
for the edifice which we hope to erect, we 
are, at the same time, employing ourselves 
in kicking away the very foundations 
which ought to be laid in our English 
schools. 

The difficulty is to find a romedy, 
and, personally, I believe that a romedy 
may be found by an appeal, first of 
all, to the Board of Education, and, 



secondly, to the local authorities. We 
might ask the Board of Education to 
encourage the study of German by the 
issue of a circular containing a eulogy of 
(German on the lines of the eulogy of 
Latin, or, perhaps, by instituting an 
official inquiry into the causes of the 
decay. The Board has a great deal of 
machinery at its disposal. And then, 
the matter is one which ought to 
concern the local authorities, who, in 
the province of education, aro the 
trustees of public money, because, at the 
present day, since the Act of 1902, we, as 
taxpayers, have to find an ever-increasing 
supply of funds for secondary schools; 
and as years go on. with the tendency that 
is shown towards free secondary education 
—-and already 25 per cent, of the places 
in secondary schools are free — we shall be 
ci^Ued upon to provide the sinews of war 
on an even more liberal scale. Therefore, 
I think that we, as schoolmasters and 
schoolmistresses, and as British parents, 
can approach the local authorities and ask 
them to do rather more than they have 
been doing towards the encouragement of 
modem languages, more particularly 
German, in their schools. 

It is rather the fashion of the present 
day to gird at these local authorities, and 
to abuse them on all possible occasions. 
I do not myself think that that does the 
slightest good. I believe that the local 
authorities are doing most useful work, 
and that they are contributing to equip- 
ping us with a national system of secondary 
education of which we are very sorely in 
need. But I will quote now from an after- 
dinner speech : * The control of education 
by local bodies had come to stay for good or 
evil — hitherto mostly for evil. ' I do not 
endorse this ; I merely quote it. The 
speaker went on : 'He did not think that 
the evil would last Local authorities 
often now displayed an utter ignorance of 
all questions affecting education. It was 
hard for some of them to find themselves 
controlled by people whose own education 
had certainly not been pushed to extremes.' 
These are the words of a head master. 



72 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Then he eays : ' But the English nation 
had a perfect genius for self-goTemment. 
This, however, was the age of the amateur, 
while the nineteenth oentory was the age 
of the expert' I quote tills because I 
wish to attempt to controvert it. Mj 
recollections of small secondary schools, 
not as a schoolmaster, but as a boy, go 
back thirty years ; and if anyone teUs me 
that thirty years ago in these small 
municipal schools it was the age of the 
expert, and that the present age is the 
age of the amateur, I say, Let us add 
another petition to the Scholars' Litany, 
and ask that we may be delivered from 
the educational expert of the nineteenth 
century. In the years of which I speak 
schoolmistresses received occasionally the 
wages of a seamstress, and many school- 
masters were not as well paid as navvies ; 
and the work of instructing the young — 
I mean those whose education was just 
being started— was not in the hands of 
experts at all, but in the hands of anyone 
who] could be got to do the job, and 
the job was very poorly done. Now, 
under the control of the local authorities, 
we are certainly aiming at and intending 
better things than that We intend— I 
am sure this Association intends — that, as 
far as modem languages go, our system of 
national secondary education shall be able 
to challenge comparison with the systems 
which we admire so much in Germany, in 
Scandinavia, and in Switzerland ; and I 
think that one of the best ways of 
achieving this object is, not to gird at the 
local authorities— who are doing so much 
useful, and, very often, thankless work — 
but to ask them to allow us to set before 
them some of the reasons why we wish 
that there should be a change with regard 
to the teaching of modem languages. 

To my mind there are two ways of deal- 
ing with the present difficulty. First of 
all, if the Board of Education is so wedded 
to Latin — that wonderful mental gym- 
nastic which we value so much in this 
country because we have never had the 
pluck to try anything else — by all means 
let us have Latin in some of the schools 



for a couple of years or so, and then switch 
on the French and the Oerman. On the 
other hand, let us also have schools which 
make no pretence at employing a mental 
gymnastic in the way of a dassioal lan- 
guage, but which, honestly and whole- 
heartedly, make an attempt to teach 
English and French and German along 
rational and sound Unes. Let us by doing 
this try to provide a type of school which 
approximates to the German Bealschule. 

I should like, in conclusion, to draw 
your attention to a striking article which 
appeared in the Tribune of December 21, 
Some of you may recollect that it was the 
Tribune newpaper which first published 
the information from its Berlin corre- 
spondent that English, after next Easter, 
will be compulsory in all the Prussian 
Gynmasien, and that information was 
ba<d:ed up by a leading article in the 
paper. A kindly correspondent pointed 
out to me that he did not think that that 
information was altogether correct, and I 
wrote to the information bureau of the 
TribuMf and I had from them an answer 
to the effect that they were in correspon- 
dence with Berlin on the point Sinoe 
then they have sent me a cutting from 
their paper of December 21, from which 
it appears that the substitution of English 
for French as a compulsory subject is only 
taking place in certain Gymnasien in 
Berlin. It is not becoming universally 
compulsory, though, of course, it is com- 
pulsory in Cologne, in Hanover, and in 
some other parts of Prussia. I should 
like to draw your attention to the end of 
the article. The correspondent of the 
Tribune talks, regretfully to my mind, 
about the commercial motive involved, and 
I mention it because I hope that, in plead- 
ing the cause of German in England, we 
can keep ourselves quite free from any 
commercial motive, or any suspicion of a 
commercial motive. I noticed recently in 
the Times that a brilliant schoolmaster 
rather sneered at commercial German 
being taught in schools. As a matter of 
fikct, I have never heard of an ordinary 
secondary school in England where 



THE POSITION OF GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 73 



comiiiercuJ German is taught, and I hope 
that I never ahalL What I wish to 
emphaaixe is that we, as an Assooiation, 
should look at this matter from the 
literary and linguistic point of view, and 
not from the oommeroial point of view. 
This is a passage to which I would draw 
your attention : * Any Englishman, with 
sufficient experience of the Continent to 
know something of the lives of English 
men and women resident abroad, must 
have been struck by the enormous numbers 
of his fellow-countrymen and women who 
pick up a hard living by teaching English 
in conversational lessons, often at a wage 
which is doubtfully sufficient to provide 
the barest necessaries of life, and for a 
length of time per day which would justly 
involve the interference of Parliament in 
almost any other profession. It is, how- 
ever, a matter of fact that young business 
men and women on the Continent are of 
ojnnion that no school teaching that can 
be provided is so useful or so certain as 
this conversational method, which could 
be secured at one time in Vienna or Berlin 
at an average price in bad cases of about 
4d. per hour. Perhaps the very value 
of this method lies in the sacrifices it 
involves. For those who desire to know 
at what cost many Germans and Austrians 
acquire their knowledge of English, it 
might be worth while to recommend an 
occasional inquiry into the conditions 
under which these people accept situations 
in England, or the hour of the night 
after business hours at which they set 
out to take their voluntary English 
lessons from some conversational teacher 
in Vienna or Berlin. ' I now come to 
the gist of the matter. This seems to 
be the opinion of the Tribune corre- 
spondent with regard, I suppose, to this 
effort of ours in England to promote the 
study of German : ' Such inquiries would 
probably startle the placid authorities 
who still believe that a similar state of 
things with regard to the knowledge of 
German in England could be secured by 
the compulsory introduction of two hours' 
grammatJcml German per week throughout 



the English schools.' I would ask the 
Berlin correspondent of the Tribune who 
are those 'placid authorities who still 
believe that the compulsory introduction 
of two hours' grammatical German per 
week throughout the English schools is 
going to secure any revolution at all 'I 
When we speak of German in our schools, 
I take it we mean four or five periods a 
week of at least three quarters of an 
hour ; and we intend that the language 
should be taught by specialists or experts, 
and that it should be taught certainly in 
the initial stages by the direct conversa- 
tional method. 

I have only one other remark to make. 
It seems to me that it always falls to my 
lot at the meetings of this Association to 
lead what may be described as a forlorn 
hope. I remember at Liverpool the 
Association trying to get a modem 
language introduced as an alternative to 
either Greek or Latin in the entrance 
examination to the Universities of Oxford 
and Cambridge; and I also remember 
moving some three years ago at Man- 
chester a resolution on the subject of 
compulsory Greek ; but a very short time 
afterwards we suffered a crushing defeat 
at Cambridge, in spite of the eloquence of 
Mr. Eve and Dr. Breul, and others in 
this room, including our Chairman. 
While I was turning over a very famous 
translation the other night I came across 
these lines : 
'Why all the saints and sages who 

discussed 
Of the two worlds so wisely—they are 

thrust 
Like foolish prophets forth ; their words 

to scorn 
Are scattered and their mouths are stopped 

wii^dust' 
I hope that in this particular instance we 
shall be able to achieve more to further 
the study of the German language in this 
country than we have been able to do in 
the past when we have attempted to 
influence education in other directions. 

Mr. EvB said that he had great pleasure 
in seconding Mr. Milner-Barry's resolu- 
tion, but he was afiraid that he could not 



74 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



enforce it as yigorously as Mr. Milner- 
Barry had done. With regard to the 
Board of Education, it seemed to him 
that in their policy of trying to ram 
Latin down people's throats they were 
departing from the principle which, he 
helieved, they laid down that a living 
school should develop spontaneously. 
There was already sufficient pressure on 
the teachers and the taught to learn 
Latin. The preliminary examinations for 
the medical profession and for the pro- 
fession of a chemist required Latin, and 
so did most of the University matricula- 
tions. Therefore, it seemed to him that 
it should be the part of the Board of 
Education not to abstain from adding 
fresh weight to that side of the balance. 
As to the difference bet^-een German and 
Latin as regarded education, he should 
like to say one or two words. The real 
benefit of Latin came comparatively late. 
He wondered how many people of those 
who passed examinations in Latin were 
able to write decent Latin prose. It 
was at that point — the translating of 
English into good Latin prose— that the 
high disciplinary value of Latin came. 
No doubt Latin had very considerable 
merit as a mental gymnastic, but this 
it had in common with other languages. 
The German accidence was by no means 
an easy matter, nor, again, was the order 
of the words. The syntax of (German was 
not, perhaps, so difficult as that of French, 
but it offered considerable difficulties to 
an Englishman. He thought that if they 
put all those points together they would 
see that there was a good mental gym- 
nastic to be got out of German. Then, 
he would come to another point. What 
use was made afterwards of the Latin 
that most people learned ? He meant the 
limited amount of Latin which fell in- 
finitely short of writing Latin prose. On 
the other hand, it seemed to him that 
when people who had learned German left 
school, it was then, xr^/Mt is Ae(, they 
took to reading German books, and gained 
some knowledge of German literature, and 
increased their knowledge of the language. 



On the other hand, Latin was generally 
learned as a demonstration for a single 
show {dydnnfffjM it to vcipaxptifia) — that is, 
for passing an examination. He feared 
that, as Mr. Milner-Barry had pointed 
out, German was going back in schools. 
Reference had been made to the fact of 
the influence of Rome all through history, 
and that, no doubt, was a desirable thing 
to be borne in mind ; but he thought that, 
as the President had pointed out in his 
address, the benefit of that Influence could 
be got, not merely from translations, but 
from books not written in Latin. Least 
of all did it require a knowledge of the 
Latin language to get some idea of Roman 
history and of the continuation of Roman 
history through the Middle Ages, when, 
by the way, the Latin was very bad. 
He did not like to join in diatribes against 
Greek, except, of course, com pukory Greek ; 
and he felt that if they were to seek new 
influence from the ancient world on their 
general studies, it should be sought in 
Greek ]*ather than in Latin. Not only 
were the Romans Philistines and Jingoes 
themselves, but the influence of Rome in 
the Middle Ages was bound up with many 
things which England had been gradually 
getting rid of. Therefore, it seemed to 
him that in England, as a Teutonic nation 
never completely Romanized, as were some 
of the other European countries, they 
ought to take some other Uno of study 
rather than Latin. The practical problem 
was a very difficult one, as Latin held the 
field. He wished to express his hearty 
concurrence with the motion which had 
been brought forward by Mr. Milner- 
Barry. He was quite sure that the study 
of German was declining in the country. 
On the whole, the sixth form in most of 
the public schools learnt German, but in 
the schools of which Mr. Milner-Bany 
had spoken there was but little German ; 
and the tendency of the Board of Educa- 
tion was to kill what little there was, and 
to substitute bad Latin for it—Latin 
which he thought partook rather of the 
lower creation than of human beings, 
canine rather than Ciceronian. 



THE POSITION OF GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 75 



Dr. Karl Breijl : After men of wide 
experience in school teaching have spoken 
to you on this subject of nnnsual impor- 
tance, I come forward as a University 
teacher in order to corroborate their state- 
ments, and to endorse their views. I 
strongly support the resolution. I do not 
speak pro domo — although on this occasion 
it would not be either unnatural or wrong 
— I should come forward just as much if 
the existence of French in the secondary 
schools was threatened, or if there was 
any danger of classical studies being ex- 
tinguished. I speak to-day, above all, as 
an educationist. 

The rapid decline of German in nearly 
all British secondary schools for boys and 
girls constitutes to my mind a serious 
national danger. It has been noticed for 
some time, even in the Press ; it is going 
from bad to worse. It is high time that 
energetic efforts at checking the decline 
and reviving the study of German should 
be made without delay. 

A representative society such aa this 
should (and I hope will) help the Associa- 
tion of University Teachers of German 
in their present endeavours to meet the 
danger. The Society of University 
Teachers of German in the United King- 
dom has, at several recent meetings, dis- 
cussed the position of German as a subject 
of instruction in English secondary schools. 
After a careful and exhaustive inquiry 
into the matter, it has come to the 
conclusion that German, as a secondary 
school subject, is at the present moment 
in danger of almost total extinction, 
unless the whole question of language 
instruction is reconsidered, and more en- 
couragement is given to the study of 
German. 

I have no commission from my colleagues 
to address you to-day, but I know that 
my feeling and my convictions in this 
matter are unreservedly shared by all of 
them. 

At a recent meeting we have decided 
to make an immediate strong appeal to 
the Board of Education. We hope that 
the Modem Language Association will 



to-day give our efforts its hearty support 
by adopting the resolution on the agenda 
paper. It would certainly be very wrong 
if anyone interested in German studies, 
and in secondary and higher education 
generally, was silent at the present critical 
time. 

German has of late decreased in nearly 
all the secondary schools with alarming 
rapidity: even in the best high schools 
for girls, where now usually the time- 
table is so arranged that at an early 
time of their school life the girls are 
made to choose between Latin and 
German, and usually take Latin in view 
of the many examinations in which so far 
this language is indispensable. I have 
collected the latest statistics of all the 
more important school examinations. 
Everywhere there is the same result, but 
I will in this place spare you the reading 
out of figures. I propose using them in 
another place. 

The position of German, and the impor- 
tance of German studies for Great Britain, 
\a no longer what it was in previous 
centuries. In the sixteenth century 
Latin reigned supreme (and some Greek) ; 
the seventeenth century added French. 
The latter part of the eighteenth century 
and the nineteenth brought in German. 
Thus, the twentieth century— our century 
— presents different conditions, and makes 
different requirements. It demands more 
German, and we give the rising generation 
less. 

German, no less than French, will, in 
our twentieth century, be indispensable 
for success in all higher walks of life ; and 
also most useful for several professions 
adopted by sons and daughters of the 
lower middle classes. Moreover, in schools 
of the second and third grade, German 
will, together with French, have to 
provide exclusively for the literary educa- 
tion of the scholars. Parents should — 
and probably soon will — insist that at 
school their children should acquire at 
least a good reading knowledge of both 
French and German, and not merely a 
smattering knowledge of French only ; the 



76 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



better ones in the schools of the first grade 
being, moreoyer, instmcted in one, or eren 
two, ancient olaasical tongoes. 

The decline of German as a secondary 
school subject is a matter of serions 
national importance— (a) From the point 
of view of general literary culture ; {h) from 
the point of view of practical utility, 
considering the great value of German 
for serious students in all branches of 
knowledge, and also for those taking up 
a commercial, technological, or military 
career; (c) from the political point of 
Tiew, as rendering a good understanding 
between the two nations less easy. 

The causes for the decline of German 
are chiefly the following : (a) The regula- 
tions of the Board of Education with 
reference to language-teaching in secondary 
schools distinctly discourage German in 
so far as they lay special stress on Latin 
and French — in the minority of schools 
at present only two foreign languages are 
taught, consequently there is no room for 
German; (() the tendency to discourage 
German in the Army Examinations, in 
the Examination for the Home and Indian 
Oiyil Service, partly by assigning to it a 
maximum far too low in comparison to 
other subjects. This is having far-reach- 
ing and simply disastrous effects on the 
teaching of German in the public schools. 

The great importance of a knowledge of 
Gennan in practically every sphere of 
modem life is theoretically admitted, but 
the necessary conclusions are not drawn 
by public bodies and examining authorities. 
It is strange that people, who ought to 
know better, do not yet see or practically 
admit that an intelligent study and a care- 
ful teaching of German gives a training 
to the mind and produces men of culture 
who need not fear comparison with those 
trained by means of other subjects, pro- 
vided their general ability is the same. 
This point is often forgotten. In order 
that the present danger to German may 
be removed, and the subject receive the 
attention which is due to it, and be given 
the scope, without which it cannot 
possibly thrive, it is nrgently neoessary 



that its present disabilities be speedily 
and effectively done away with ; and that, 
moreover, it receive, for some time at least, 
some distinct encouragement from public 
authorities and examining bodies. We 
teachers of German, and I least of all, are 
not actuated by any feeling of hostility 
towards classical studiea All we desire is 
that breathing space may be granted, and 
the same encouragement be given to Ger- 
man as to the study of Greek, Latin, and 
French. 

Without having fair scope our study 
cannot live ; its extinction at the present 
time would be nothing short of a stu- 
pendous mistake and a serious national 
calamity. The question then arises: Is 
there time for the teaching of German 
in the school time-tables? I believe 
that 'where there is a will there is 
a way.' That time can be found for 
German by the side of Latin, Greek, and 
French in the classical schools is shown 
beyond doubt by our Cambridge Perse 
School for boys, whose able head master 
is an excellent classic, but at the same 
time not unmindful of the claims of 
German. In his school the boys on the 
classical side are all learning German as 
welL The language should be acquired 
properly at school, and not 'picked up' 
somehow during a few weeks on the 
Continent. If German is not acquired 
early in life at school, it is hardly ever 
properly learnt in after-life. I know 
this from a long and very varied experi- 
ence and conversations with men and 
women in all walks of life. Many scholars, 
often eminent men of science, greatly 
deplore that they were never given a 
chance of learning German at school. 
Only a few can manage a few months at 
Dresden, Bonn, or Hanover at a later stage 
of life. This is often found inadequate for 
purposes of scholarship and indispensable 
accuracy. It is high time to give up in our 
discussions of ideals of education the old 
ever-recurring opposition of classics to 
science, to contrast the old humanities 
merely with modem scientific and techno- 
logicai studies. The £Mt is persistently 



THE POSITION OF GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 77 



(one would almoet think intentionallj) 
overlooked that the new humanities have 
oome in, and have come to stay by the 
nde of the old litercB humaniores. It 
shonld be frankly realized that the time 
has gone, and gone for ever, in which it 
was thought that only an education based 
on the ancient classic writers of Greeoe 
and Rome deserved the name of 'higher 
edncation.' It cannot be maintained that 
the educational authorities of Prussia are 
not inspired by high educational aims in 
making regulations for their secondaiy 
schools. In Prussia the position of 
English is analogous to the position of 
German in this country. Now, it is a 
well-known fact that the study of English 
is at present very much encouraged in all 
Prussian schools, including the classical 
schools (Gymnasien), while England seems 
at the present moment the only country 
of importance where the study of German 
is completely neglected and promising be- 
ginnings allowed to faU into decay. 

Are these utilitarian views ? A reproach 
often heard and constantly met with, in 
print ; but ' ffier gibCs zu unterscheiden,* 
says Lessing. 

In language study it is certainly no 
disadvantage if the language taught at 
school is not only of great formal beauty, 
and if great works of art have been 
written in it, but if it is also, in addition 
to the former, of great and ever-increasing 
practical utility ; if its study is sure to be 
continued by boys and girls after school ; 
if it leads them to become acquainted 
with great modem nations — their life, 
ideals, aspirations, and difficulties. This 
is now at last done for French. Scope 
has been given, and stimulus and much 
practical enoonragement The teaching 
has much improved. The good results 
will be seen before long. 

May the time not be too distant when 
the same may be true of German I May 
those of us who have given their lives 
to the promotion of sound instruction in 
German be able before their eyes grow 
dim to get more than a distant view of 
the Land of Promise ; and may secondary 



and higher education in Great Britain no 
longer be deprived of the essentially im- 
portant element which is afforded by the 
doee and sympathetic study at school of the 
language and literature, life and thought, 
of England's nearest relatives across the 
sea. 

Mr. Moors-Smith said that he did 
not at all wish to strike a discordant note, 
for he was in agreement with the resolu- 
tion. It was to him in Sheffield a matter 
of astonishment to find that there were 
so many girls who were not now studying 
German, but were taking Latin. Some 
greater elasticity, such as Mr. Milner- 
Barry suggested, would be an advantsge ; 
but he objected to the view that modem 
literatures could be satisfactorily studied 
in themselves without some background 
of classical knowledge. It was to him a 
most hopeless task to be teaching Shake- 
speare, an author full of classical allusions, 
to a class to which all these allusions had 
to be laboriously explained. Lately he 
had had the misfortune of reading 
' Paradise Lost ' with a Chinese, who had 
never heard of Adam or of Abraham. It 
was a very similar matter to read 
Shakespeare or Renaissance literature 
with people who were without any kind 
of infusion of classical literature. He 
wished that if the classical authors could 
not be studied in the original tongues, the 
advocates of modem literary study would 
insist that in their curriculum there should 
be required some kind of knowledge of 
the thought and religion and history of 
the Greeks and Romans, such as might 
be got by reading some books of Homer, 
some Greek plays, and some parts of 
Ovid and Livy in translations. He did 
not think, however, that it was absolutely 
impossible even for boys and girls leaving 
school at sixteen or seventeen to have 
made some acquaintance with more than 
two foreign languages. In his time his 
head master introduced the custom that, 
when a boy had got into the sixth, he 
broke the ground of German, being sup- 
posed by that time to be able to get along 
by himself in French. He believed that. 



78 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



in conaeqaence of the extraordinary im- 
proyement in modem language teaching 
which had taken place in hia day, and 
which was the work of the Aflsociation, 
boys and girls of fourteen could now 
know as much French as was formerly 
known at fifteen, and that now they 
could break the ground of German at 
fifteen, so that, if they went abroad, they 
could easily complete their conmiand of 
the language. Then they would have 
two modem foreign languages at their 
disposal, and some knowledge of the 
agiiage and thought as well. 

Dr. Bbeul, explaining, said that he 
had not meant to imply that a person 
who was to teach Grerman should be 
ignorant of the classics. Of course, any- 
one who had to teach Shakespeare, or any 
other modem literature, ought naturally 
to be grounded in Latin and Greek. He 
did not despise going abroad after a 
certain foundation had been laid. 

Mr. Atkinson, referring to Mr. Moore- 
Smith's contention that they could not 
study English or Renaissance authors 
without a basis of the classics, said that 
it only required to carry that argument 
a little bit further to lead them into a 
hopeless difficulty. If to understand 
Shakespeare they must understand Latin, 
then to understand Latin they must go 
back to Greek, and then a little further 
back from Greek to Sanscrit, or some 
Indo- Aryan language. He did not think 
that such an argument would really hold 
when they came to discuss the question as 
between Latin and German. He believed 
that the whole question turned on a point 
which had not yet been raised, and that 
was that the whole scheme of education 
was altering, and must alter. Dr. Breul 
had said that one period had given them 
Greek, and another period Latin, and 
another period French, and another period 
German, and he seemed inclined to throw 
away compulsory Greek, but to retain 
German; but the only reason which he 
had given for retaining German seemed 
to be that it was the language which had 
come last. Those languages which had 



come earlier Dr. Breul seemed to be pre- 
pared to relinquish. He did not see the 
logic of Dr. Breul's contention. Was not 
the position really that now they had to 
choose between the older subjects of the 
curriculum and those which until more 
recent times did not enter into their 
curriculum at all? In this particular 
discussion they had to choose between 
Latin and German. The address which 
the President gave them that morning 
made it dear that it was not necessary 
to leara Latin in order to understand 
the writings of the Romans, nor was it 
necessary in order to understand the 
various terms which occurred in science 
or the various references to mythology 
and such like matters, as these could be 
looked up in a dictionary. But it seemed 
to him that in these modem times they 
had to distinguish between two definite 
aims — a classical education for some pur- 
poses, and a modem education for other 
purposes. That fact was recognized in 
the schools, for there were classical sides 
and modem sides. They would have in 
time, he believed, to limit the number of 
classical schools. At the present time 
Latin was far less useful than German, 
and he felt that German should take the 
upper hand over Latin. He took a 
classical degree at Cambridge, and then 
a science, and, after that, he started 
modem languages ; but the tendency of 
his own mind was drifting more and 
more towards the modem development. 
People did not leam Greek in order to 
study the New Testament, and, as far 
as Latin was ooncemed, he doubted 
whether the Englishman who had been 
educated on the classical side appreciated 
his Shakespeare very much more than 
the German who read it in a German 
translation. 

Professor Rippmann said that he was 
not quite sure that, when Professor Moore- 
Smith spoke of the number of languages 
that could be taught, he really remembered 
that they were speaking about the grant- 
aided schools, in which the average leaving- 
age was sixteen or even lower ; in schools 



THE POSITION OF GERMAN IN ENGLISH SCHOOLS 79 



in which papils stayed to a much later 
age things were very different. Then 
Professor Moore-Smith had said that, as 
their methods of teaching modem lan- 
guages were improving, pupils should 
drop a language earlier than formerly. 
He liked to believe that their methods 
were improving, but he did not know 
that the day would come when they could 
make up their minds to drop French at 
fourteen and a half, for he did not think 
that by that age pupils would be ripe 
enough to appreciate what was best in 
French literature. 

Assuming that French was to be 
regarded as the first foreign language, 
the question often arose whether the next 
knguage was to be Latin or German, and 
he should like to suggest that there 
should be something of compromise there. 
It was quite possible to emphasize Latin 
and yet to teach some German, and it 
was possible to emphasize German and 
yet to teach some Latin. He had 
repeatedly pointed out a possible improve- 
ment in modem schools in which the 
classics were not taught — that of setting 
aside a short time, if only one hour a 
week, to imparting some knowledge of 
the life and thought of the Greeks and 
of the Romans. Nothing, to his mind, 
could be more useM than lessons by 
the classical teacher to the boys of the 
modem side, in which he gave them some 
idea about classical literature illustrated 
by the reading of standard translations. 
Something similar might be introduced on 
the classical side. It seemed to him that 
that would have real educational value, 
and it could be done at no very great 
cost. 

It was all very well to say that 'if 
there was a will there was a way,' that 
a place would always be found for a third 
foreign language; the whole tendency 
nowadays was to reduce the number of 
hours, not only for pupils, but for the 
teachers. The time would come when 
keeping the boys and the teachers at 
work for twenty-eight hours a week would 
be regarded as barbarous. Attention was 



being turned to the importance of medical 
inspection, and it would be soon realized 
that the time to cram in fresh subjects 
for boys and girls was certainly not 
between the ages of twelve and fourteen. 
Perhaps they might even go so far as to 
find that the best thing for many boys 
and girls at that age would be to turn 
them out to grass instead of cramming 
them. It must also be borne in mind 
that the grant-aided schools contained, 
aud would continue to contain, a veiy 
large percentage of children from ele- 
mentaiy schools, who entered at twelve 
without any knowledge of a foreign lan- 
guage. This could not be avoided. 
Gould such children be expected to leam 
three foreign languages between twelve 
and sixteen I The thing was impossible. 
Even two languages in that time would 
be too much. If the teaching of German 
had suffered, there were many reasons for 
it; one of them was the crowding up of 
the curriculum, which had reached its 
limit When it came to be a question 
between Latin and German, the fact that 
Latin was preferred was in many cases 
due to the influence of the inspector. 
The number of inspectors who had had 
a modem training was very small com- 
pared with the number of those who had 
had a classical training. An inspector 
might b^ a fair-minded man, but his 
classical career would naturally have a 
warping influence. A still more subtle 
influence was exercised by public opinion, 
and in this respect a great deal must be 
done by the Mends of German to bring 
about a more satisfactory state of things. 
Let every one who was keen about German 
do something in his own small sphere 
among those with whom he came into 
contact to improve the position of German. 
It was by going on slowly but surely 
that they would do some good. Above 
all, let them try to influence the Press, 
and lead it to deal with the relations 
between England and Germany in a more 
kindly spirit A great deal more might 
be done to bring home to this nation 
the immense importance of possessing a 



80 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



knowledge and appreciation of the German 
langnage and German literature. 

Miss Lows said that though she was 
greatly in sympathy with the study of 
German, she hoped the Modem Language 
Association would be careful what position 
they took up with regard to the place of 
Latin in schools. For one thing, there 
seemed to be some misconception of the 
aim of classical teachers of the present 
day. Latin and Greek are no longer the 
dry bones of the past, but many teachers 
are trying to induce boys and girls to 
appreciate classical works as masterpieces 
of literature. They must bear in mind, 
too. that there really are two types of 
schools— namely, the schools of the type 
that prepare students who are goin^ to 
take up language and literary work in a 
more advanced way, either at the Univer- 
sities or at home or abroad, and for this 
type Latin and German and French are 
essential. At the same time, there are 
schools which prepare pupils who will 
not probably continue language or litera- 
ture up to a very advanced standard, and 
to these she thought that in many cases 
German would be probably more service- 
able than Latin. In using the word 
serviceable she was not speaking from 
the utilitarian point of view, but she 
believed that the pupils of these schools 
would get more literary exgoyment out 
of German than out of Latin ; and that is 
really one of the main reasons for which 
modem as well as ancient languages are, 
or should be, taught, not so much as 
mental gymnastics, but as factors in 
education which broaden the mind and 
produce appreciation. She thought that 
it was of no use to contrast the value of 
the two languages, Latin and German, 
because a really cultured man or woman 
should know all three languages. Granted 
the three languages are essential in schools 
preparing pupils up to the University 
standard, what, she asked, is the best age 
to begin German T In her own experience 
she had found infinitely better results in 
Gennan when the children began French, 
then Latin, and then studied Gennan, 



than when the order was French, German, 
Latin. The majority would take to 
German very quickly at the age of 
fourteen or fifteen, and have more love 
for the language and appreciation of its 
literature than when they began much 
lower down the school, and were hampered 
by what would tum out later to be only 
small grammatical difficulties. It had 
been granted by a former speaker that 
those who intend to teach modem lan- 
guages must know French, Grerman, 
and Latin. Unfortunately, however, boys 
and girls at the age of thirteen and 
fourteen do not know whether they are 
going to teach or not But the three 
languages are neoessaiy to the traveller 
and the archaeologist and the historian, 
and they are certainly necessary for the 
student of comparative history ; therefore, 
it seems wiser to maintain them in the 
curriculum of the first type of secondary 
school. She granted that what she had 
said did not seem to be in favour of the 
motion before the Association, but, though 
she was anxious there should be no 
hostility to the teaching of Latin, she 
thought that it would be very much 
better if the Board of Education would 
leave the choice of the languages to the 
head masters or the head mistresses of the 
schools, who would be more in touch with 
the needs of the locality, subject always 
to the final approval of the Board. What 
she particularly wished for was elasticity, 
and for this reason she was in fiivour of 
the motion that the Board of Education 
should not require Latin to be one of 
the languages where only two were taught. 
That requirement would practically tie 
the hands of the schools. At the same 
time, she hoped that the Association 
would not make a statement without 
explanation against the inclusion in the 
curriculum of a classical language. 
Classical languages are, after all. sisters 
of the modem languages. The ancient 
and the modem languages must be con- 
sidered as forming one group of subjects 
in the education of boys and girls who 
carry their studies fhrther than is possible 



FRENCH PLAYS AND SONGS IN SCHOOLS 



81 



in schools where the average leaying age 
18 sixteen. It is not only the seoondary 
schools of this latter type that must be 
considered. The needs of every type of 
school in the country most be recognized, 
if the action of the Modem Language 
Association is to inflnence the education 
of Sngland as a whole. 

Miss PvsDix (Exeter High School) 
wished to corroborate the experience of 
Miss Lowe with regard to taking first 
French and then Latin and then Qerman. 
She did not think it possible for anyone 
who had not tried that order to realize 
the enormous facility with which a child 
could learn German at the age of fifteen 
after having, perhaps, three years* ex- 



perience of Latin. If pupils began French 
at eight, Latin at twelve, and German at 
fifteen, and were allowed two or three 
years further before they left school, the 
grasp of German which they would acquire 
would be astonishing. She would go 
further, and assert that including Latin 
in the curriculum saved an enormous 
amount of time. It was a preparation 
for German, and it saved time by aboUsh- 
ing English grammar, and it also saved 
time by preparing for an apppreciation 
of the great masters of English literature. 
She was heart and soul against the 
resolution, and she could not be too 
grateful to the Board of Education for 
opposing the tendency to give up Latin. 



FRENCH PLAYS AND SONGS IN SCHOOLS.* 



Whxn asked to read a short paper on this 
subject I was at first reluctant to accept 
your Committee's invitation, for the sub- 
ject seemed to me a thoroughly hackneyed 
one, and incapable of any originality of 
treatment. Tou will therefore pardon 
me, I hope, if my remarks contain only 
the obvious and the well known. They are 
meant simply to provoke discussion among 
an andience which includes, I know, many 
with far more experience than I have. 

Vint let me define the scope of my title. 
French plays and songs in schools may 
have two values— decorative and educa- 
tionaL It is of the latter only that I 
wish to speak. We are all fiEuniliar with 
the decorative aspect, especially, I suppose, 
in reference to private schools. In this, 
at least, I am judging by what old students 
of my own have told me. ' Oan you get 
up entertainments ? We have them once 
or twice a term for our parents,' is one of 
the questions they seem to be often asked 
in applying for posts. Or, again, I know 



* Paper read at the Annual Meeting 
of the Modem Language Association on 
January 8, 1908. 



of a school where parts were allotted at 
the end of July, and the whole autumn 
term practically given up to rehearsing 
one or two little plays which were to be 
given for some charity in December, 
when a high admission fee was charged, 
and the plays presented with lavish 
spectacular effect This may be good 
advertising (I am not sure), but it is 
certainly not education. 

No. My claim is for the employment 
of songs and plays in school as an integral 
part of French education. They may 
occasionally be given before parents and 
friends, but this is to be only subsidiary 
and accidental, not essential to their trae 
use, which is that of an instrament of 
education. 

This is an ambitious claim. Let us see 
whether it can be justified. What are 
the claims that French plays and songs 
oan make to be included in the curriculum T 

1. They appeal to what is essentially a 
child's instinct— the dramatic instinct. 
To press into the cause of education each 
successive instinct is good economy and 
good psychology. The dramatic instinct 
awakens early in a child, and, if en- 
6 



82 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



conraged and directed on wise lines, may 
help the teacher in many subjects, not 
least in language work. 
1'. 2. They emphasize the importance of 
dear enunciation. 

8. They make the child realize from the 
start that French ii a living language. 
They familiarize him with the idea that 
the sentence, not the isolated word, ia the 
unit of speech, and they train him from 
the first to speak in sentences. 

4. Their vocabulary is the vocabulary 
of daily life. 

6. Songs in particular assist materially 
in what is, perhaps, the hardest lesson for 
an English child to loam— the feeling 
after the stress and musical intonation of 
the French language. 

6. There is no end to the interest that 
acting plays in school arouses. 

Songs.—^ongs often contain in them- 
selves the rudiments of drama, and they 
possess the great advantage of bringing 
the whole class into activity. They might 
well be used from the lowest form to the 
highest, but their usefulness will probably 
be greatest in the lower and middle forms. 
It is a good phm, at any rate vfith a new 
song, to insist on careful recitation of 
each verse by the whole class and by 
individuals before the musical setting is 
taught. In getting perfection in this 
recitation much time is saved by the use 
of phonetic script. No homework other 
than memorizing the song from the 
phonetic script version should be allowed ; 
no hunting up of unfamiliar words in 
dictionary should be permitted ; meanings 
of new words should be elucidated in class 
by the teacher by dramatic action and 
other devices. Those who have not tried 
it can hardly realize the brightness and 
life which a song sung now and then 
imports into school lessons, nor what a 
hold songs thus learnt have upon the 
children. Thoy become their permanent 
possession. 

The vocabulary of the song, again, seems 
to lodge itself in the brain with an extra- 
ordinary persiBtence. Months after, in 
coming across what she thinks Ib a new 



word, the teacher is greeted with a shout 
of joy : * Why, we had that in such and 
such a song !' S?ie has forgotten, but not 
they. 

ifo^^rioZ.— There is probably a great 
wealth of good material hidden away in 
the folk-songs of the various French pro- 
vinces, so far hardly touched for school 
use. Such oollections as the ChanMfu 
Populaires de la Haute SavoU, by Jean 
Ritz, or Theodore Botrel's songs of Breton 
peasants, contain a very great deal that is 
unsuitable for la jeunesse ; but there are 
some in them so delightful, both in melody 
and words, and so suitable, that it seems 
worth while to call attention to them, in 
the hope that the collections of French 
folk-songs may be overhauled, with a view 
to abridging and adapting more of them 
for school use. 

Then there are, of course, the old 
French nursery rhymes, to be purchased, 
with music and highly coloured illustra- 
tions, in any French village for a sou 
apiece ; and in English dress we have two 
books of nursery rhymes, arranged by 
Mile Thirion, and published, with music, 
by Joseph Williams, for 6d. each ; and 
a sixpenny book of songs published by 
Blackie (melody, but no accompaniment). 
Some French schools seem to use a little 
book, published by Larousse at a franc or 
so, called Le Livre de Mutique, and con- 
taining many of the old favourites ; and, 
lastly, there are many reading books with 
songs interspersed, some with music. 
Such are Miss Fitzgerald's Parlez-vous 
Fran^aisf published by Longmans at Is. ; 
and Mackay and Ourtis's First French 
Book (WhiUker, 2s. ed.); while Mr. 
Kirkman's Premihre ArnUe de Franqais 
has a musical supplement, published by 
Black at 6d., and called A First French 
Song Book. 

Plays, — ^The word in my title is rather 
misleading : I mean rather short dramatic 
sketches, usually in the form of one-act 
comedies. The great thing with children 
is not to weary them. Obviously a play 
in the ordinary sense is much too long to 
learn by heart; and scenes from great 



FRENCH PLAYS AND SONGS IN SCHOOLS 



83 



pUyB, as a rale, demand too mnoh power 
and snbtlety to be suitable for javenile 
aetors. 

Bat the play, short and simple as it is, 
most be a real play, not simply a detached 
scene from French life, a sort of com- 
promise between a reader and a play, snch 
as is sometimes offered to as by publishers 
as a sabstitate. A plot, howeyer simple, 
isassentuL 

Method,— I suppose the ideal method 
woald be to start with some central idea, 
and get the children to work it out, 
character by character, scene by scene, for 
themselTee in class. I believe Miss Par- 
tington has tried something of this 
method with her youngest classes with 
success. But obviously it has great limi- 
tations, and only a very gifted teacher, 
under very fikvourable conditions, could 
hope to obtain much success with it. 

Another plan, not without advantage, 
is to let the class dramatize scenes from 
their reading-book once they are thoroughly 
fiuouliar with its subject. TUs I have 
seen done with conspicuous success with 
La Tulipe Noire. But few reading-books 
lend themselves to this treatment ; it 
demands more constructive dramatic skill 
than tiie average teacher or class is likely 
to possess ; it is necessarily fragmentary, 
deiding only with episodes, and it results, 
as a rule, rather in a series of scenes than 
in a play with due entanglement and 
resolution of plot Bearing these limita- 
tions in mind, however, one will find that 
the class does an enormous amount of 
apperceptive work in the process, and it 
might well come in at one stage or other 
of the child's school career in French. 

On the whole, however, we must use 
the plays of other people. Here we may 
distingmsh two, or possibly three, stages : 

1. The fairy story in dramatic form for 
the little ones— say, up to eleven or twelve 
years of age. 

2. Drawing-room comedies for pupils 
of thirteen to sixteen. 

8. Scenes from well-known French plays 
for pupils of sixteen to nineteen. These 
should be sapplemented by the regular 



reading, in parts, of the great classical 
plays, the reading being, of course, cor- 
related with the study of French literature 
that will be being taken in the sixth form 
concurrently. 

MatericU. — Among English publications, 
the junior stage seems to be the one most 
catered for at present. There is no lack 
of these little fairy-tale plays, such as 
Miss Partington's, Mile Hainsselin's, and 
others published by Blackie, etc. I hope 
I may be forgiven for hanging out two 
danger signals : 

1. The moral is often too obvious. A 
goody-goody story, even if in dramatic 
form, soon becomes unpalatable to small 
children. 

2. Elaborate dances slung together by a 
few French words with the slightest of 
slight plots may be decorative, but is 
hardly educational. 

If the dramatized fairy story is hecto- 
graphed in phonetic script for the use of 
the small children, the most charming 
results in pronunciation may be obtained. 

The middle stage — ^twelve to sixteen — 
is as yet very inadequately provided for. 
There are adaptations by Mile Ninet, 
and sketches by Mrs. Frazer and Lady 
Bell. These seem to hold the field alone. 
They are often most useful ; but may I 
plead for more action and more point in 
any frirther sketches Mrs. Frazer may be 
so good as to give us ! 

For the senior stage— sixteen to nineteen 
— Blackie*s little French plays from 
classical and modem authors {LiUie French 
Classics^ 6d.) should prove useful. I have 
so far had no experience of acting them, 
as so many male parts seem essential to 
nearly all. Boys here seem to be b^ter 
provided for than girls. 

In these two latter stages France comes 
to our aid. Apparently in French schools 
the need of short comedies for school 
acting has been found, and some fifty- 
three dramatic sketches {pour lajewneaae) 
have been published by the Librairie 
Th^trale, 82, Rue de Grammont, Paris. 
Of these fifty-three, eight are written for 
boys, thirty-seven for girls, and eight for* 
6—2 



84 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



bojB and girls together. I liave not been 
able to examine many of these, bnt from 
the specimens I have had I should think 
this a frnitful field for English school 
enterprise. An excellent caUUog%te ono- 
Iftique can be obtained for 25 centimes, 
giving a sommary of the plot. Each 
comedy costs, as a role, 1 franc. 

In conclusion, may I commend to our 
English publishers* notice the need of 
encouraging enterprise on the following 
lines. We want — 

1. More dramatized fairy-tales, not 
depending too much on spectacular effect, 
with the preponderance thrown on the 
French conversations, not on the dances, 
some versions, at least, to be in phonetio 
script. 

2. More drawing-room comedies — short, 
simple, full of action, with real point and 
plot, with as little scenery and change of 
scene as possible. 

8. Plain texts, without vocabulary or 
notes. 



It is probably owing to the demand a 
of an uninstructed public that publishers 
of school books often seem bereft of 
imagination and reasoning facultiee. 
Whatever the cause, the result is de- 
plorable ; they have come to credit children 
with a total lack of these qiyalities. They 
issue comedies fnrmshed with a complete 
vocabulary, grammatical notes, and even, 
perhaps, lists of irregular verbs. What 
oould be more foolish! The essence of 
drama is that it shall be acted. What 
need of noun vocabulary when the objects 
are there on the stage before one ? What 
need of verb vocabulary when the actions 
are being acted by the children them- 
selves T A little conmion sense, a little 
imagination, a little use of the child's 
reasoning powers, and whatever obscurities 
the text may present are quickly cleared 
up. SolvUuramlnUando. If the difficulty 
persists, what else is the teacher there for 
bnt to remove it T 

F. M. PUKDIS. 



THE NEXT STEP. 

A PENDANT TO THE DISCUSSIONS. 



A FXBSON inclined to be observant of 
tendencies and movements would have 
been struck at our last annual meeting 
by the spontaneous applause that greeted 
every reference to the teaching of litera- 
ture. It is a noteworthy sign; for it 
would seem we are at last agreed that if 
a boy learns a foreign language at school 
he does so in order to gain that peculiar 
advantage that comes from being con- 
versant with the thoughts, feelings, and 
ideals of another nation ; and that these 
are found best expressed in the nation's 
literature. Our position in this matter 
has not always been so obvious: at 
Durham, for example, some member 
having brought forward a resolution 
* that the main object in language teach- 
ing is to lead a boy to think better,' or 
words to that effect, another was imme- 
diately heard indignantly asserting that 
language teaching had nothing to do 



witii thinking, *no more than playing 
the piano 1' On that occasion some of 
us found ourselves recalling a book called 
Pensisi, and a passage in it by which we 
even remembered having been, in a way, 
moved: L'homme n'est qu'un ro»eaUf le 
plus faible de la nature^ mads e*ett wn 
roseau pensant: also a great philosopher 
who wrote, Je penae, doncje sum, founding 
thereon a whole system of philosophy; 
and wondering queerly how those great 
men would have sympathized with such 
an attitude towards intellectual education. 
For, if one may write of physical, moral, 
and intellectual education without being 
at once reminded that they are insepar- 
able, I should say that it is in intellectual 
education that we are at present weakest ; 
and it Ib also with this branch of educa- 
tion that modem language teaching is 
chiefly concerned. 
There is no doubt that many of oar 



THE NEXT STEP 



85 



papils leaTe school at present withoat 
haTing formed any definite inteUectoal 
interests. Departore from school, besides, 
makes a great break in a boy's life ; not 
only is he suddenly confronted with 
many problems he did not know before, 
bat he also finds Ms hoars of leisure very 
few, so that these years, among the most 
important of his Ufe, are seldom finvonr- 
able either to the acquisition of new 
inteUectnal tastes, or to the development 
of any that may already exist. We, his 
teachers, in most cases the only real 
teachers he will ever have, should do for 
him what we can while he is still with 
nsL We should not let him depart with 
too scanty provirion. And, after all, a list 
of ooi^'unotions requiring the subjunctive 
mood in French, or the various queer 
things that Band may mean in the plural, 
constitute but poor parting counsel to a 
yonth going out into life. 

Now, of all the intellectual pursuits 
that a boy may take to, the habit of 
reading good books is surely the most 
desirable. Whatever other hobbies may 
attract him, this should not be neglected. 
Not that we should try to make all our 
pupils bookworms: far from it. There 
are even moods when one feels that 
nothing better oould be imparted than 
such a love of open air and blue sky as 
would send a youth mountain-climbing, 
or discovering the beauties of his country 
on foot. But at the present day it is 
very nearly impossible for a man to be 
truly enlightened without being some- 
thing of a reader ; and our aim should be 
to turn out enlightened men, for these 
present pupils of ours will be the parents 
of a future age, and will even influence 
education more directly still, becoming 
members of education committees and of 
boards of governors,— to mention only 
those things that concern us, as teachers, 
most closely. 

I was first set thinking in tiiis strain 
some years ago, when, having presented 
an old pupil with an English classic, I 
learnt some time afterwards, to my dis- 
appointment, that he considered it dry» 



and, as far as I can remember, did 
not read it. The book was Einglake's 
JBothen. Had I given him John Stuart 
Mill On Liberty, or Burke's Speeches, it 
would have been still worse. And yet it 
is surprising how soon a yonth finds 
himself in the midst of life, with duties 
and responsibilities, obliged to form 
opinions on all the great political, social, 
and religious questions of the day. Never 
having been introduced to such authors 
as these, he draws his opinions from his 
halfpenny newspaper, which, with the 
music-hall, completes his education. Yet 
it ii not difficult to make a boy love 
good literature. A French ftiend of mine 
was telling me some time ago how a 
pupil of his conceived a passionate love 
for English through hearing Coleridge's 
Ancient Mariner read in class. 

Unlike the French lyeie, we have no 
cla89$ de pkiloBophU at the top of our 
schools ; therefore, the teaching which is 
done in that class in a French school 
should with us be done by each teacher 
in his special subject, as occasion offers ; 
and no subject gives so great opportunitiee 
for such teaching as modem languages. 
Indeed, I am inclined to think that this 
is the chief contribution modem language 
teaching wiU make to secondary educa- 
tion ; it will raise the general intellectual 
standard and widen the outlook of our 
pupils by introducing them to what is 
most beautiful and most valuable in 
modem literature. And our next step is 
to decide how this can best be done. 

I confess I am sometimes surprised that 
people should still be 'found to discuss 
the methods to be employed in the earlier 
stages of language teaching. To my 
mind, the question has long ago been 
answered, as such a question is best 
answered, by experience. Surely it is 
now clear that results are being obtained 
by the direct method, of which supporters 
of translation methods had never even 
dreamed? 

But whether we should adhere strictly 
to the principles of the direct method 
when we set before ourselveB the task 



86 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



of introducing oar popils to the highest 
literature of the language I incline to 
regard as still an open question. It \b 
certain that the Reform method is best 
for introducing pupils to ordinary narra- 
tive literature, and that boys so taught 
will take very kindly to reading in their 
free time such authors as Dumas, 
Erokmann-Chatrian, or Hanff. But in 
dealing with a foreign classic the work, 
the author, and his age should all be 
discussed in class in the fullest manner ; 
and I can imagine that strict adherence 
to the foreign language might in many 
oases be unfavourable to that free exchange 
of thought between teacher and class which 
U so valuable, which, in fkct, at this stage 
is just what we want I don't suggest at 
all that the thing is impossible; my 
object is to point out the nature of the 
problem before us. We want it proved 
that the best way to give a boy the 
fullest measure of culture in his modem 
literary studies is to teach him on direct 
method lines up to the fourth form ; and 
also to teach him on the same lines after 
that stage. The necessary conditions are, 
first, an adequate amount of time in the 
upper part of the school ; secondly, teachers 
eager to carry out the experiment Given 
the favourable conditions, there is no 



reason why the result should not be a 
striking success; we may yet have the 
pleasure of hearing a sixth form discuss 
in fluent French the literary theories of 
Taine, or the social doctrines of Rousseau. 

No doubt there are many teachers up 
and down the country who, not having 
oome under the enlightening influence of 
the Modem Language Association, have 
yet much to leam about even the elements 
of their craft ; but speaking of the others, 
the enlightened, I believe the problem 
uppermost in their minds is that I have 
tried to sketch above. Those who have a 
fancy that way may study the psycho- 
logical problem, which has attractions of 
its own, but in the end it is experience, 
and experience alone, that will ever give 
us a satisfactory answer. 

In the meantime, I like to recall what 
Dr. Breul said to us at one of our meet- 
ings a few years ago, that he had been 
taught English by a master who had 
never heard of reform methods, but 
whose enthusiasm for the language and 
its literature, being real, was communi- 
cated to his pupils. It is this fine 
enthusiasm which, after all, matters more 
than anything else; it should show 
through, through whatever medium. 

K Orkagh Kittson. 



DISCUSSION COLUMN- 

WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF PUBLIC EXAMINATION AND 
INSPECTION I 



CoNTRiBUnoNS for this column should be sent within one month of the 
date of issue of this number of Modern Language Teaching to Mr. 
F. B. Barkman, 19, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, W. 



Mr. W. Osborne Briostocks 
(Berkhamsted). 

For the sake of hrevity I am putting my 
remarks in the form of a confession of 
faith. 
The existing multiplicity of examining 



and inspecting bodies does on the whole 
conduce to efficiency, provided that a 
school is examined and inspected by one 
body only. 

An examining body has not only the 
right to direct the method of teaching — it 
cannot help doing so — it should, of 
course, take the peculiar methods of 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



87 



teachers (if worthy) into account ; bat it 
cannot allow its examination to be to any 
large extent directed by the wishes of the 
teachers. 

Examinations are nseftd at all stages, 
bat it is very important that examinations, 
in the early stages at any rate, shonld be 
based on an agreement between teachers 
and examiners. 

The simplest method of testing ability 
to anderstand the written language is to 
set a long onseen (fifty lines) to be done in 
a limited time, credit to be given for a 
general anderstanding of the whole passage 
rather than for an exact translation of a 
portion. A short unseen of the usual 
length (ten to fifteen lines) should test 
ability to tackle construction with 
accuracy. 

Dictation is invaluable as practice and 
as a test. It should be constantly used. 
Mr. Kirkman says : ' I would rigidly 
exdnde translation into the foreign lan- 
guage from all junior examinations, 
because it compels many teachers to give 
systematic translation lessons at a stage 
when they regard it as very undesirable.' 
I would exclude it from all but the very 
highest forms. Free composition should 
always form part of a paper. In the 
junior forms an outline of some kind 
should be given ; in the lowest forms the 
whole should be given, and only certain 
changes should be required — «.^., first 
person plural instead of third person sin- 
gular {we instead of him). It is in this 
way alone that grammar should be tested. 

Testing ability to speak a language is a 
subjective matter, depending very much 
on the personality of examiner and pupiL 
I have tried all kinds of methods. None 
seems to me more satisfactory than taking 
words that are unknown to the pupil and 
explaining them in the foreign language. 
The explanation always leads up to some- 
thing about which the pupil can talk, and 
the method has the advantage of making 
the examiner talk first. It is quite mis- 
leading (as far as results go) to ask the 
average English boy to start talking about 
a picture ; it is grossly unfair to expect 



him to bo able to talk about a piece of 
unseen that he has read aloud. In nine 
cases out of ten all the attention was 
devoted to the pronimciation. 

A reading test is absolutely essential. 
No pupil ought to be allowed to grow 
accustomed to a wrong pronunciation, 
which would make comprehension of 
poetry or fine prose impossible. 

To a form half-way up a secondary 
school (second or third year in the upper 
school) I would allot marks as follows: 
Unseen (fifty lines), 20 per cent. ; unseen 
(ten to fifteen lines), 10 per cent ; free 
composition, SO per cent. ; reading, 8 per 
cent ; dictation, 12 per cent ; conversa- 
tion, 20 per cent Lower in the school I 
would increase the percentage for reading, 
dictation, and the long unseen. In the 
higher forms I would increase the per- 
centage for unseen (fifteen lines), free 
composition, and conversation. 

Inspection by all means, but by one 
body only, and that the best the school 
can find. Frequent short visits and occa- 
sional protracted visits. The aim should 
bo to understand fully the difficulties of 
each school, and to combine with teachers 
to produce the best results possible under 
the circumstances. Also to effect the 
removal of the inefficient, if there is a 
reasonable probability of filling the vacan- 
cies with more efficient teachers. There 
should be two classes of inspectors— senior 
inspectors, men and women who have 
been taken from the ranks of teachers 
between the ages of thirty-five to forty 
on account of noted success as teachers ; 
junior inspectors, men and women actually 
engaged in teachii](|^, and to whom a year's 
leave of absence is granted to inspect other 
schools. No difficulty would be caused by 
this if it became a regular practice. The 
senior inspectors would receive large 
salaries; the junior inspectors salaries 
equivalent to their school salaries, plus 
expenses. The essential qualifications of 
an inspector are patience, imagination, 
sympathy, humour, and enthusiasm, and, 
above all, as deep a knowledge of men, 
women, and children as possible. 



88 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACfflNG 



IL 

Mr. H. L. Hutton 

{Merchant Taylonf School, E.G.). 

I send you some obserTations on the 
valae of dictation based on experience 
with boys of Tarions ages. 

1. Boys under fonrteen taught on 
yarions methods. Test : (a) A short story 
or description read from a book. I find 
that the boys who have done translation 
with some oral work produce better results 
in this test than those trained solely on 
Reform lines. Apparently they catch 
enough of what is read to make out the 
general sense, and the correct form of the 
wovds on paper is a matter for the eye. 
Thoee trained on Reform lines may do 
well within the limits of their vocabulary 
but these limits are narrow under the 
ordinary conditions of class teaching, and 
they have not that bowing acquaintance 
with a large number of words possessed 
by the Translators. This statement must, 
however, be modified by one consideration 
— a careful phonetic training prevents a 
large number of common mistakes that 
the Translators are apt to make, yet it does 
not help so much as wider reading and 
a grammatical eye. 

if) A short story or description — spoken, 
not read. In this test the vocabulary is 
carefully limited, and the material is 
arranged so as to test: (1) Sounds — e.g.^ 
*e ouvert,* *e ferm^,* nasal vowels; 
(2) grammatical forms and constructions — 
e.g., plurals, concords, tenses. The spoken 
intonation seems easier to catch, and the 
difficulties of sound and grammar are such 
as may reasonably be expected from boys 
at this age. This seems to be somewhat 
more of a test for the ear ; and if the 
Translators are more familiar with the 
look of the words, the Reformers are more 
fkmiliar with the sounds. 

In looking over the papers, I always 
take the dictation first, and rarely fail to 
pick out the five best boys from this one 
test. 

2. Boys of various ages up to sixteen, 
taught on Reform lines. Internal ex- 



amination on term's work. Test: (a) A 
passage out of the term's work, slightly 
altered. The majority obtain nearly full 
marks, so the test is of little value. 

(&) As in 1 (&), or passage similar to 
term's work — read. Both these seem to 
be fair tests. A few boys fail who do 
well in the papers on the term's work. 

8. Boys between sixteen to eighteen, 
London Matriculations University scholar- 
ship standard. Boys taught on the 
Translation method, with practice in 
dictation, do as well as boys brought up 
on the Reform method . The latter require 
some drill in dictation to do well, in my 
experience ; but this may be due to special 
conditions. They are not helped so much 
as I should expect by the sound, though 
they do better after phonetic drilL A 
few boys with specially correct ears do 
better than in their other work in the 
language ; a few slow, plodding boys do 
worse. The minority do about what their 
other work would lead one to expect. 

Dictation, then, should probably be 
regarded as a test for the eye rather than 
the ear. All Reform teachers know that 
pupils will make endless blunders in 
writing sentences they have just spoken 
correctly and fluently, unless they are 
well drilled in paper work. Any boy who 
can recognize the words and the general 
sense, if he is familiar with the look of 
the words and is grammatically accurate, 
will pass the test It is a good test for 
accuracy and vocabulary. 

One or two considerations as to the 
application of the test. The results 
depend a good deal on the way in which 
the dictation is read, on careful articula- 
tion and speed. I have seen very different 
results obtained by different readers : one 
thought it his duty to go as fast, the other 
as slow, as the regulations allowed ; one 
thought it his duty to read almost care- 
lessly, the other with extreme precision. 
How is it possible to standardize the 
results ? Should the test be applied by 
the master who usually takes the form, or 
by some one who is a stranger to them t 
Ytom my experience, I should judge that 



LA socarrfi acadkmique 



89 



the nnfiuniliir remder makes little differ- 
enoe to the result, provided that he reads 
dearly and slowly. I have found, how- 



ever, that boys who understood an 
examiner readily when he talked to them, 
oould understand little when he read fast. 



LA SOCrflT^ ACADfiMIQUE. 



The Editor thought it would interest the 
readers of Modbbn Language Teaching 
to know about our French Society, and I 
am very glad to fall in with his sugges- 
tion, and to send an account of it and its 
doings, hoping that it will thus gain more 
friends and supporters, and so extend its 
Qseftilness. 

The Association was started just over 
three years ago, for our own staff and 
elder scholars. It was then suggested and 
hoped that many kindred girls' schools in 
the London district would eventually 
Join. It was also hoped that, still keep- 
ing the first school as head-quarters, a 
monthly r&umon oould be held, and the 
entertainments given by each affiliated 
school in turn. 

The idea of the Association from the 
very first was to supplement the French 
lessons ; to give the girls a little of that 
French atmosphere and French social life 
so hard to get in ordinary class-rooms — 
unfortunately, all that can be allotted 
to Modem Language Teaching in most 
schools; to enable them to act, and see 
acted, French plays ; to sing French songs, 
redte, hear good lectures and causeries 
(given by the numerous French professors 
in London, who have always been exceed- 
ingly kind to the Society); to play 
French games ; and last, but not least, to 
eat and drink in French — a most useful 
way of loosening tongues, and of learning 
to use small eveiyday sentences. With 
this aim in view, a part at least of every 
meeting is devoted to general conversation 
and refreshments, and it is strongly urged 
on every member that French, and French 



* Miss Stent is senior French mistress at 
the Oentral Foundation School for Girls. 



only, is to be spoken during the r^nians. 
It may even be advisable to suggest to 
members who do not uphold this rule, 
and who are heard using their native 
tongue (unless, of course, that is French), 
that there is such a thing as ' suspended 
membership.' 

Of course the French spoken is not 
always of the best ; but, then, one never 
really learns to swim until one strikes 
out alone in the water, with perhaps an 
occasional word of advice. And here I 
would like to urge upon the elder mem- 
bers and friends, who are present at the 
meetings, the immense amount of help 
and support they would give the Sodety 
by their encouragement of carefrd talk 
and pronunciation among the girls. Of 
course they are shy and diffident at first, 
but the telling of an anecdote at dcvin- 
ette will often lead to others, and it is 
surprising how much is learnt from these 
evenings and produced afterwards in 
compositions. 

Beginning with a membership of seven 
or eight, the Society now numbers about 
200, with six affiliated and about eight 
attached schools. It has so far exceeded 
the size and usefulness aimed at even by 
its ambitious founders that a President, 
Committee, and new set of rules, to meet 
its new needs, have had to be found, and 
it is now reorganized and ready for a 
large number of new members. 

Among some of its attractions, it might 
be well to mention that the subscription 
is very small, especially for the girls of 
the affiliated schools, and that two enter- 
tainments are given a term. These are 
always full of interest and eigoyment, and 
the audience is a most appreciative one. 
It was very gratifying to be told a short 



90 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



while ago by one school, which had veiy 
kindly acted Le Bourgeois OmtUhomnu 
for the benefit of onr Society, that, oat of 
the three or four andienoes they have had 
on different occaeionB, that formed by the 
members of La Soci^t^ Acad^miqne had 
been the most appreciative and enthn- 
siastic The play certainly was a huge 
snccess, and is very happily remembered 
by those who were fortonate enough to bo 
present. 

The riumiona are very varied, which is 
perhaps in a large measure the cause of 
their success, for one never knows what to 
expect But perhaps the most successful 
form of r/uniofi, if any comparison can be 
made, is that which is now becoming the 
most usual, when the girls of the school 
entertaining arrange the programme with 
the help of their French mistresses, and 
themselves act, sing, or play. In this 
case it is difficult to judge whether per- 
formers or audience are having the best 
of it. Anyhow, it is certain from remarks 
overheard that some of the onlookers 
would like to be performers ; but whether 
performers would like to be mere lookers- 
on is not so certain. This has been 
found the best sort of evening to help on 
the Direct Method of teaching French; 
and before closing my remarks I will 
briefly describe the last of the kind we 
had. 



It began early, with the reception and 
placing of guests, and really valiant efforts 
were made to keep to French, with good 
results, too. Soon the excitement became 
intense, as row after row of seats in the 
pretty and well-lighted hall was filled, 
until all the affiliated schools but one 
were well represented. The curtain rose, 
and for the next half-hour or so the 
attention of the audience was held fast by 
the very pretty rendering of several soenet 
from Labiche's comedy, Le Voytige de 
Monsieur Perriehon, I might here add 
that the girls all knew the play, as I 
believe it is the custom for them either 
to read it themselves or for the French 
mistresses to tell the story of it before- 
hand. 

Then followed refreshments, conversa- 
tion, and music, after which the curtain 
rose for the finishing scenes. The rfytnitm 
was closed, as they all are, with one verse 
of the * MarseillaiBe' and one of * Qod Save 
the King/ sung by about 150 delighted 
members, all wanting to go back to school 
and get up a French evening themselves 
as soon as possible. 

As Secretary of the Soci^t^ Acaddmique 
I shall be very pleased to answer any 
questions regarding the Society, and these, 
with applications for membership, should 
be addressed to Miss K 0. Stent, Central 
Foundation Girls' School, Spital Square, K 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 



A MEBTiiro of the Executive Committee 
was held at the College of Preceptors on 
February 29. 

Present: Messrs. Somerville (chair), 
Allpress, Fiedler, Hutton, Von Glehn, 
Milner-Bany, De V. Payen-Payne, and 
Rippmann. 

Letters regretting inability to attend 
were read from Miss Morley and the Hon. 
Secretary. 

The minutes of the previous meeting 
were read and confirmed. 

The Finance Sub-Committee presented 



their estimate of receipts and expenditure 
for 1908. 

Mr. Bfilner-Bany reported that the 
Sub-Committee on German, acting in con- 
junction with the Society of University 
Teachers in German, had invited and 
obtained the co-operation of the British 
Science Guild and the Teachers' Guild of 
Great Britain and Ireland. It had been 
decided to draft a memorial on the neglect 
of German, and to forward it to the Board 
of Education, with a request tha a depu- 
tation might be received. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 



91 



Mr. AllpretB reported that the project 
for a General Edacational Congress had 
been abandoned. 

The following resolntion, submitted by 
Mr. Kirkman to the general meeting in 
connexion with the report on the con- 
ditions of Modem Language Teaching, 
was then considered : 

'That the General Committee be in- 
stmoted to consider whether it is 
advisable — 

' (a) To bring the facts of the report to 
the notice of the public and of educational 
authorities. 

*(h) To formulate suggested improve- 
ments of existing external school examina- 
tions in Modem (foreign) Languages, and 
snbndt them to the consideration of the 
examining bodies ooncemed. 

'(c) To airange for more frequent dis- 
cussion meetings of members in any 
locality where there appears to be a 
promise of success.' 

It wa8decided--(l) That 1,000 copies of 
the report should be printed and distri- 
buted as occasion arises ; (2) that a sub- 
committee, consisting of Messrs. Kirkman 
(convener). Button, Pollard, Professor 
Rippmann, and Miss Purdie, should be 
appointed to deal with the subject of 
examinations, such sub-committee to meet 



after midsummer, and to report to the 
Executive Committee ; (8) that the ques- 
tion of meetings be left in the hands of 
the Hon. Secretary. 

The following new members were 
elected: 

£. L. Barbier, B.A., University of 
Birmingham. 

A. Bowden, King Edward's School, 
Five Ways, Birmingham. 

B. J. E. Bu^, B.-teL., Christ's Hospital 
F. A. Cavenagh, B.A., Grammar School, 

Cheltenham. 

Miss K C. Sweeny, B.A., Green Secon- 
dary School, Bush Comer, Bfiddlesex. 

Miss D. B. Weekes, B.A., Girls' Modem 
School, Bedford. 

B. Wake. L.C.P., Grammar School, 
Bridgnorth. 

The Committee then adjoumed. 

3^ 3^ 3^ 

The Modem Language Exhibition was 
displayed at Sheffield University on 
March 26, 27, and 28. On the latter day 
a meeting was held, which was addressed 
by Mr. F. B. Kirkman. The local branch 
of the Teachers' Guild lent its co-operation 
to the undertaking. A full report will 
appear in our next number. 



HOLIDAY COURSES. 



Thb Spedal Inquiries Office of the Board 
of Education has prepared its annual 
Table of Holiday Courses on the Continent 
for Instraction in Modem Languages. 
This year there are five courses in Gfermany 
and Austria, three in Switzerland (all in 
the French-speaking parts), one in Spain, 
one in Italy, and eighteen in France. 
Particulars of each course are given under 
the following headings: Organization 
responsible for the (3onduct of the Course, 
Date, Fees, Betum Fares from London, 
Lowest Cost of ' Pension ' per Day, Ad- 
dress For Further Information, Prhidpal 



Subjects, etc. Important Details. Copies 
of this list, together with further informa- 
tion as to the courses contained therein, 
can be obtained on application to the 
Director of Special Inquiries and Beports, 
St. Stephen's House, Cannon Row, White- 
hall, London, aW. 

3^ 3^ 3^ 
Four of the courses mentioned in the 
above list — viz., those at Tours, Honfleur, 
Neuwied, and Santander — are conducted 
by a (3ommittee of Management, consisting 
of eighteen members representing the 
Teachers' Guild and other associations. 



92 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACfflNG 



Some details of these oonrses were giren 
in Modern Lanouaob Teaching, yoL iii. 
p. 90. The fact that these oomses are 
now in their twelfth year may be taken as 
affording some goarantee that they are 
managed with care, and likely to be of 
real benefit to students. 

The preliminary circular giving par- 
ticulars of these courses will be sent on 
application to the Teachers' Guild. 74. 
Oower Street, London. W.O. The hand- 
book, giving full syllabuses, time-tables, 
and lists of families taking boarders, 
hotels, etc., may be obtained firom May 1 
(price 6d.). 



The UniTersity of London has arrmnged 
a Holiday Oourse for Foreigners this 
summer from July 20 to August 14. Last 
year a number of applications had to be 
refused, as it is a rule that there shall not 
be more than 200 students at any time. 
Those who intend to take part in thu 
oourse are therefore advised to apply ewlj. 
The detailed prospectus is now ready, and 
can be obtained on application to the 
Begittrar of th* BxUnsion Board, Uni- 
venUy of London^ South Keiuingiim, 
London, S, W. The words * Director of 
the Holiday Oourse ' should be added in 
the left top comer of the envelope. 



LA MAISON UNIVERSITAIRE DE ST. VALERY-S.-80MMB 
ET LES CARAVANES SCOLAIRES. 



La Maison de Saint-Valery est une 
Station d'itude et de repos k I'usage des 
hdtes de la B^idence universitaire de 
Paris et de tous les travailleurs qui veu- 
lent y venir chercher la salubrity de I'air 
marin et le calme des grands horizons. 

Pour les Strangers, la Maison univer- 
sitaire est aussi une EcoU de fraji^ais, 
L'enseignement de la langue, bien que 
m^thodique, n'y affecte que fort peu la 
forme scolaire ; les progr^ r^ultent de la 
vie mSme dans un milieu tout fran9ai8, de 
r^tnde des id^ comme des mots. 

Le matin, avant que chacun aille libre- 
ment k ses travaux ou ^ sa fl&nerie, la 
joum^ commence en ce doitre liuque par 
la lecture famili^re, autour de la table 
du dejeuner, de brefs passages emprunt^ 
aux auteurs les plus varies : textes tout 
trouv^ d'entretiens et de discussions 
quand ensuite on se retrouve. L'aprte- 
midi, c'est dans la campagne ou au bord 
du flot qu'on lit et cause k volenti, et le 
soir, par les temps frais, autour du feu 
qui flambe dans la sails aux boiseries 
blanches. . . . 

Une exp^enoe de deux ann^ a 
prouv^ que oe cadre trds simple ^tait bien 
oelui qui convenait aux jeunes professeurs 
et aux ^tudiants occup^ touts Tannic 
pour des travaux k heures fixes. Dans 



I'atmosphbre calme et la pleine Hbert^ 
de la vie de village I'^tude personnelle, 
stimuli par des Changes inoessants 
d'id^ avec les orgamsateurs, devient un 
d^Iassement. Les excursions, prdpar^ 
par des lectures et de trds simples oon- 
fSrences, apportent T^l^ent de vari^t^ 
n^cessaire et font connaitre le petit coin 
de terre fran9ai8e oh s'est ^tablie la Maison 
universitaire. 

L'^t^ dernier, la Maison ne s'est pas 
ferm^ un seul jour d'avril k novembre. 
Tout fait pr^voir qu'il en sera de mSme 
cette ann^ car on voudrait k pr^nt 
associer au b^n^fice de I'^tude du fran- 
9ais sur place de trte jeunes ^tudiants, 
des icolierSt k partir de I'ftge de 11 ans. 
On vient g^n^ralement trop tard, beau- 
coup trop tard dans les pays dont on doit 
apprendre la langue ; la plasticity de la 
m^moire, la merveilleuse flexibility des 
organes pendant la p^ode de I'ado- 
lescence ne sont encore que bien impar- 
fiutement utilis^es. II y a aussi un grand 
parti k tirer, pour I'acquisition des mots, 
de Tassociation avec des sensations vives 
et agr^bles ^prouvte par un jeune esprit 
transports dans un pays Stranger. Aveo 
de courts sSjours Schelonnds et une direc- 
tion mSthodique on pourrait obtenir de 
grands rSeultats et rSaliser de notables 



THE SCHOLAES' INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE 93 



^oonomifls de temps et de foioee. La 
qnestioii est k I'dtade k la liaison uniyer- 
sitaire ; elle avanoerait sans doate k 
grands pas si la vaste Modem Language 
Associaticm Toolait apporter son oonoonis 



^clair^, tant an point de vne p^dagogiqae 
th^riqae qa*k celoi de la reoherohe des 
moyens pratiques d'organiser les oaravanes 
scolaires. G*est k sollioiter ce oonoouis 
qn'est destines la prtente note. 



THE SCHOLARS' INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE. 



It is practically impossible to giro any 
accurate statistios as to the nnmber of 
scholars who now cany on a correspon- 
dence with foreign scholars, as the printed 
lists of teachers, both French and English, 
permit the language professors to make 
their own arrangements. Perhaps the 
best idea of the increase is the fact that 
whereas four years ago the list of Knglish 
teachers interested was contained on one 
page of the Bevue Untveniiaire, four 
pages were occupied last time and a 
supplementary page was added. The 
increase of IVench teachers was about in 
the same proportion. The amended lists 
are now in course of preparation, and 
Miss Lawrence, 14, Norfolk Street, Strand, 
will be very glad to hear from language 
teachers who would like to haye their 
names placed upon the list, and alK> the 
new addresses of those who have changed 
schools since the last list was issued. 
One interesting development comes from 
Japan and Egypt, whence teachers ask 
for Sn^ishkboys to correspond, but in 
English only, as they do not suppose our 
E"gli«l> boys know either Arabic or 
Japanese. 

Now that the arrangements for the 
Exchange of Homes during the hoUdays, 
or otherwise, is in process of organization, 
we hope that this scheme may be extended 
much more widely. There are, however, 
one or two points which must be kept in 
mind. As regards the exchange with 
France, it is very difficult to persuade the 
parents of French boys or girls to send 
them farther than about a hundred miles 



north of London. The exchange with 
Germany is as yet undeveloped, but 
naturally the Eastern Counties would 
receive more attention. The parents of a 
girl in Ireland, however, offered to defray 
the extra cost for travelling expenses. 
The question has once or twice been 
asked. What are the costs, and what the 
advantages, of this exchange of homes ? 
The cost for each parent is naturally the 
travelling expenses of the girl or boy 
exchanged, together with the amount 
of pocket money necessary. The advan- 
tages are, first, the rapid progress made 
in the knowledge of the foreign language 
consequent on being surrounded by people 
who speak that language only ; secondly, 
the widening of outlook which it has 
always been recognized foreign travel 
gives. 

As regards numbers exchanged, the 
English are still £ur behind both France 
and Germany. In 1908, 28 French boys 
were exchanged and 18 girls; but the 
majority of the exchanges were with 
Germany. The Sod^t^ d'J^change In- 
ternational reports for the year 1907 the 
large number of 145 exchanges. Of these 
but 84 were between France and Eng- 
land, and 1 only between England and 
Germany. So £ur as can be discovered, 
the prevailing note is one of great satis- 
&ction on both sides. 

It is much to be hoped that teachers 
will exert their influence in this matter. 
Letters should be sent to Miss Batchelor, 
Letcombe Bassett Bectory, Wantage. 



94 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



BE VIEWS. 



ffeifu's Book of Songs. TrmimUted by John 
TODHTTNTIR. xvi+279 pp. Oxford: 
Clarendon Preas. Price 8«. 6d. ; ^ 
India paper, 48. 6d. 

We are bound to appreciate the boldness 
of him who attempts to translate the 
whole of the Buch der Lieder, imdaunted 
by the failures of his predecessors. A few 
of the Lieder have been found to lend 
themselves to translation, but others— the 
majority— defy every attempt, and Dr. 
Todhunter has failed, as all are bound to 
fiuL There are two insuperable difl&culties. 
The rhyme words in the two languages 
diflfer, and to produce rhymes often 
necessitates the use of a strange or 
'learned' word, where the German text 
has a common, simple word ; in other 
cases a bad rhyme is admitted. German 
has inflexions where English has dropped 
them ; in verbs and adjectives, more par- 
ticularly, we constantly find German di- 
syllables corresponding to English mono- 
syllables. The translator, desiring to keep 
the same number of syllables in the line, 
is driven to repetitions, or the insertion of 
ideas not contained in the text, or the 
substitution of elaborate for simple words. 
It may be of some interest to exemplify 
these statements ; perhaps this may deter 
other would-be translators from a thank- 
Take first some cases in which the 
exigencies of the rhyme have led to the 
introduction of strange words and ex- 
pressions: 

* Die Baume ragten himmelan.' 

The trees their houghs to heaven raught, 

'Im schwarzen Galafrack and seidner 

Wests ' 
In hUUk dress-coai and silken vest instate. 

* Gab' ioh mit Freud' und wohlgemut.' 
rd give with joy and lustihood (rhymes 

with*52oo<2'). 

'Yom diirren Philister, dem reiohen 

Wiohf 
By a fusty cwrmudgeon^ a rieholdblighL 

* O, konnt' ich die liebe sargen hinzu 1', 
ok, could I wUhin U my love en4shest I 



Further ' examples fare : a-q uaU, fere^ 
Jishlings, elsewhither, stound, the shaUers, 
clave, deep-gored, drearOiead, brwRH- 
Ifumming, I have by no means exhausted 
the list. 

Poor rhymes are plentiful ; almost every 
page supplies such examples as sighs: 
melodies, carolling : sing, have : grave^ 
one : lone, face : says, hale&ny : alone he, 
blaze : says, ice : likewise, ^eak : sick^ 
bewitched : besmutched, home : come, 
mmLming : burning, hall .-festival, garret : 
spirit, glory : mjore I, dwell : icicle, de- 
plored : word, fable : miserable, gruesome : 
bosom. In two consecutive verses the 
rhymes are tarry : you : ?Mrry : do, 
spirit : utterly : hear it: me; six lines out 
of eight rhyming badly. Before we studied 
this version we had no idea that there 
were so many possibilities of bad rhyming 
in English. 

Repetitions, where the original has only 
one word, are common, as well as other 
extensions, l^ypical examples are : 

* Und zeifft mir jene Stelle, 

Wo icn das liebste verier.* 
And shows me the place ofpleuxs^ 
The place where I lost my love, 

* Welchem aber von den beiden 

Wendet sich ihr Herze su ? 
Eein Elrgriibeln kann's entscheiden, — 

Schwert heraus, entscheide du I' 
But to which, or both, or neither, 

Turns herheart t Her hecui, I trow, 
Searched decides not yet for either : 

Out then, sword, decide it thou! 

* Der Hans und die Grote tanzen herom, 

Und jauchzen vor lauter Freude 
Der Peter steht so still und stumm, 

Und ist so blass wie Kreide.' 
Blithe Bans and his Orete, they dancing 
come. 

Loud laughing for utter gladness ; 
Po(yr Peter stands stock-still and dumb. 

As pale as chalk for sadness, 

* kdnnt' ich dir roten die Wangen blass 

Mit dem Blut aus meinem Herzen 1' 
To flush\thy pale cheek, would my blood 

suffice, 
My heart's blood thou mighiest borrow. 



REVIEWS 



95 



These examples will also senre to show 
how little the translator reproduces the 
melody of the originaL Indeed, there are 
many lines and verses which are unpleasant 
to the ear. Far better had it been to 
adhere less strictly to the metrical scheme 
of the original and give something of its 
easy flow than to produce such lines as — 

A» * Amen, world tnthoui endf The old 

moUier taySt 
That my kinsfolk mayn*i pick out my 

eyeSf be near ; 
Damp dews on her pale chsek shining. 
On the old eggs of love*8 last laying. 
Swift ^ ruins change to a castle. 

Or such a verse as — 

Much, how m/uch, is Irft, mareowr ! 
Oh, haw fair looks the world still/ 
Heart, ail things with joy can thrill : 

Of all things be thou the lover/ 

Compare with this the original : 

' Und wie viel ist dir geblieben, 
Und wie schon ist nooh die Welt 1 
Und mein Herz, was dir gefallt, 
Alles, alles darfst du lieben !' 

He is surely to be pitied who docs not feel 
the perfect simplicity of the German, and 
the miserable inadequacy of the English 
version* 

It is only fair to add that occasionally 
the translator has sucoeeded in giving us 
something that approaches more closely to 
the original — especiaUy in the case of 
rhymeless poems. After going carefully 
through the book, we arrive at the result 
that about twenty-five out of the two 
hundred and fifty rhymed poems may be 
considered satisfactory renderings. In 
order to show what we regard as satis- 
&otory, we give the following example of 
Dr. Todhunter at his best : 

' Every mom I rise, demanding : 

** Oomes my love to-day ?" 
EveiT night fie doi^n oomplaining : 
** Still she keeps away.'^ 

■ In the night-time with my sorrow 

Wide awake I fie ; 
Half asleep I wander dreaming, 
While each day goes by.' 

Compare the original, and it is again 
easy to find fault—* every ' in lines 1 and 
8, 'demanding* for 'asking,' *Ue down' 



for 'sink* ich hin/ 'while each day goes 
by' for 'bei Tag'; but on the whole the 
spirit has been well reproduced. Even 
better U the following : 

'When springtime comes, and the sun 

shines bright. 
With blossom and bud the young flowers 

are gay; 
When the moon goes forth on her shining 

way, 
The stars swim after her through the 

night; 
When the singer sees two sweet fittle 

eyes, 
From the deep of his spirit glad songs 

arise ; — 
Yet songs and stars, and sweet spring 

flowers, 
And eyes, and moonlight, and sunny 

hours, 
Howe'er delightful be such stuff. 
To make a world 'tis not near enough.' 

One good rendering out of ten is, how- 
ever, not enough to redeem the book. We 
cannot recommend this or any other 
version to anyone who wants to make 
Heine's lyrics his own without going to 
the original ; translation, even at its best, 
gives but a poor and often distorted image. 
On the other hand, anyone interested in 
the art of translation will find a com- 
parison of these renderings with the 
original a pleasant and instructive task ; 
and if he has felt any inclination to trans- 
late German lyric poetry he will probably 
learn a lesson, and be chary of giving to 
the pubfio any but his most happy 
attempts. 

Historical Oerman Grammar. VoL i : 
Phonolo^, Word-Formation, and Acci- 
dence. By Joseph Wright. Oxford: 
University Press. Pp. xv+314. Price 
6s. net. 

Students of German will welcome this 
very convenient statement of facts bearing 
on the phonology and the morphology. 
Professor Wright, who has undertaken the 
laborious work of bringing together these 
facts from many sources, deserves our 
thanks for producing what he justly claims 
to be the most complete treatise on his- 
torical German grammar which has hitherto 
appeared in the English language. For 
purposes of reference it will undoubtedly 



96 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



be of groat use, especiAlly when Professor 
Fiedler has given us the promised com- 
panion Yolome on historical German 
syntax. 

Having said this mnch, we feel con- 
strained to express oar regrot that Pro- 
fessor Wright has not written a little 
more for the non-specialist. How useful 
for the ordinary schoolmaster would have 
been a readable (though strictly scientific) 
account of the history of the language, 
somewhat after the fashion of Lichten- 
berger t What an interesting chapter there 
might have been on the Latin loan-words 
—quite a piece of KulturgeschiehU / It 
required a force of self-denial to omit it 
which seems to us remarkable. As it is, 
the book is a repository, with a good 
index ; to anyone but ^the professed 
philologer it presents a forbidding appear- 
ance, so much of it being words, not 
sentences. And, after all, will the pro- 
fessed philologer use it ? There is hardly 
a reference to ZeUachrift or BeUrage, 
Possibly it is only the conscientious critic 
who will read it from cover to cover ; 
and, doing so, he will doubtless leam — 
and at times disagree. As evidence that 
we have made our way through the 
book, we submit some points we have 
noticed. 

Page 11 : modem German examples of 
the sounds would have been better ; did the 
vowel sound in our not exist in O.H.G.! 
Page 12, 1. 21 : the sign 5 should have been 
explained. Page 14, § 16 : the definition 
of [a diphthong recun on page 93. It is 
much to be regretted that all phonetic 
symbols and terms were not explained at 
tiie outset. What is the student to make 
of 'voiceless lenes' (§ 19}! 'open s as 
in ^' (§ 21)T * broken' and 'slurred' 
accent (§ 28) T Page 17, § 21 : the state- 
ment about the pronunciation of d is made 
again in § 90, and a third time in § 120. 
Page 83, § 175 : the number of syllabic 
nasals and liquids in modem German is 
much smaller than is here suggested. 
Page 86, § 182 ; the « is not always dropped 
in the superlative of derivative a4jectives 
(der verzwickteste, der gewandteste). 



Page 125, § 245: the omission of r in Wdt, 
and the change of r to 2 in Tdlpel^ 
murmeln^ etc, should have been mentioned 
here. The view expressed in the note as 
to the origin of uvular r is not generally 
accepted. Page 181, § 257 : a reference to 
Sbbe should have been made here, and to 
Kladde in § 278 ; </. Dogge, etc, in §291. 
Page 150, § 800 : such cases as Liederehen 
deserved mention. Page 152, § 807: in 
addition to li, el and U are found as 
diminutive endings in Upper German. 
Page 210, § 425 : driror is a misprint. 
Page 211, §428: for se^MriO, etc, Old Eng- 
lish and Sanskrit might have been men- 
tioned as well as Greek. Page 281, § 469 : 
kexn may also be regarded as derived from 
dechein. Of words the historical develop- 
ment of which is of interest, but which do 
not seem to have been treated frilly in the 
phonology, we may mention : Bid, Bang 
(no reference to metathesis), Zin$ (treat- 
ment of Latin e), Fftjftr (treatment of 
Latin i), KwMamih, ntiM, Ztste, FfwU^ 
Flawm, lytaume. There seems to be no 
section on popular etymology, room for 
which might well have been found in the 
chapter on word-formation. A section on 
gender is also needed, for the discussion 
of such cases as Bibel, Nummer, Matter^ 
Fender, etc. It may generally be re- 
marked that loan-words have not been 
treated as fully as is desirable. A map of 
the dialects may also be recommended for 
inclusion in the second edition. 

Der Ooldene Vogd, and Other TaU$, 
Edited by Walter Bippmakn (Denf s 
Modem Language Series). P^. 95. 
Is. 4d. 

We have seen rise under Professor 
Rippmann's hand a complete— or almost 
complete — school library of French books, 
where method, theory, and practice have 
each a place. Throughout the series runs 
a definite purpose, a certain spirit of co- 
ordination, almost a 'Methodik.' Now 
the German side is being built up in the 
same way, and Der Gcldene Vogel is a fresh 
link in tiie series. It is intended to follow 
on the New First German Book and 
(lennan Beader. It has been much 



REVIEWS 



97 



simplified, without in the least interfering 
with the spirit of the stories contained. 
We should use it ourselves before the 
editor's Anienen in Oerman, The book 
contains five tales, divided into thirty 
8ection& Corresponding to each of these 
are sets of exercises, and here, again, all a 
second-year student, properly grounded on 
a sound wall-picture method, can require 
is given in the matter of grammatical 
exercises (in German, of course) and word- 
building questions. We cannot exaggerate 
the importance of word-building; taken 
together with picture teaching of concretes, 
word-building is the only rational method 
of learning the vocabulary of a language. 
Most Englishmen suffer from the lack of 
such teaching in their own language — 
witness the common daily misuse of 
abstracts. We are therefore pleased that 
Professor Rippmann has not given a Ger- 
man-English vocabulary. Such books are, 
indeed, badly needed. In his preface the 
editor (Herauageber is more correct) states 
briefly the way in which the book may be 
used. He has already given elsewhere his 
Methodik. May we hope that this alto- 
gether excellent book will be followed by 
a series of cheap, short excerpts similar to 
W. Osborne Brigstocke's series ! We have 
already recommended Der CMdene Vogel 



for use in one Public School— need we say 
more? 

An Easy Poetry Book, W. Williamson, 
B.A. Methuen. Pp. 116. Grown 8vo. 
Price Is. 

This little book does not appear to ftilfil 
any particular purpose. It does not pro- 
fess to contain selections which cannot 
easily be found elsewhere, and not all of 
those included are suitable for the young 
children for whom they are intended. 
Tennyson's * Break, break, break,' is too 
difficult 'for those whose age does not 
exceed twelve years'; nor can they pro- 
perly appreciate love-songs. There is no 
attempt to arrange the poems in any kind 
of order. 'Faithless Sally Brown' is 
followed by 'The Charge of the Light 
Brigade,' which is succeeded in turn by 
Keats's ' I had a dove, and the sweet dove 
died,' and 0. W. Holmes's ' The Spectre 
Pig/ Variety of this kind is not likely 
to promote catholicity of taste, nor is any 
object gained by altering the title of 
Browning's ' Incident of the French Gamp.' 
There are also some careless misprints — 
0.^., Britannia rule« the waves. The chief 
thing in favour of this anthology is that 
there are no notes or explanations; the 
poems are left to make their own impres- 
sion directly on the reader. 



FROM HEBE AND THERE. 



OxroRD University.— We notice with 
pleasure that at Worcester College scholar- 
ships for Modem Languages, as well as for 
other subjects, will be offered for competi- 
tion on June 25. 

% % % 

Bombay, Elfhinstonx Gollios.— The 
Secretary of State for India has appointed 
Mr. F. Storrs, B.A., of Gambridge, to be 
Professor of English Literature. 

% % % 

English R^piriTRioxs.— The French 
Ministry of Public Instruction have re- 
cently decided that for the future the 
sum of £16, previously payable by English 



r^p^itriceaia French ieolea normalea, shall 
no longer be demanded. English r^p^tC- 
trices in these institutions will henceforth 
be appointed au pair. 

AAA 

We regret to announce the death of 
Mr. Thomas Thompson, editor of the 
Essex County Chronicle, and a Fellow of 
the Institute of Journalists, who was a 
member of the Association. 

AAA 

Der 18. deutschx Nxuphilolooxn- 
TAG wird vom 8. bis 11. Juni, dieses 
Jahres in Hannover stattfinden. Die 
Verhandlungen beginnen mit einer Yer- 

7 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



aammlnng der Vertreter der zum AUge- 
meinen Deutschen Nenphilologen-Ver- 
bande gehorigen Vereine am Naohmittage 
det 8. Jnni. An den ilbrigen Tagen 
werden u. a. folgende Yortrage gehalten 
werden : Prof. Dr. Eiohler (Wien) : 
' Hochdentaches Spraohgat im neneng- 
liflohen Wortaohatze.' Prof. Dr. Engwer 
(Berlin): ' FranzQaiache Malerei and Lit- 
teratur im 19. Jahrh., eine Parallele.' 
Prof. Baron Looella (Dreaden): 'Oarlo 
Ooldoni. ' Geheimrat Dr. Mttnoh (Berlin) : 
'tyber die Yorbildong der Lehrer der 
nenoren Sprachen.' Dr. Panoonoelli (Mar- 
burg) : ' Der Phonograph im neosprachL 
Unterricht (Experimentalyortrag).' Prof. 
Dr. Philippsthal (Hannover): 'Tainee 
Weltanschaaung and ihie deatachen Qael- 
len.' Prof. Pinloche (Puris) : *Franz5- 
siache Schiilerkolonie in Dentachland.' 
Prof. Soheffer (Dreaden): 'Phonograph- 
iaohea.' Prof. Dr. Schr5er (Eobi): 
't^ber Shakeepeare-tyberaetzungen.' Prof. 
Sohwend (Stuttgart) : ' Der Neuphilologe 
und die bildende Eunat.' Prof. Sohweitier 



(Paria): 'Lea reaaouroea de la mdthode 
directe.' 

A A % 

Herr Hans Akdrssek announoea a Tint 
of a (German theatrical company to London 
thia spring. Among the performances will 
be three malin^es of Leasing's Minna von 
Bamhelm, at the New Boyalty Theatre, 
on May 2, 6, and 9, at apeoial popular 
prioea — namely, ataUs 2a., other aeats 1&, 
gallery 6d. The undertaking has the 
support of His Excellenoy the Ctorman Am- 
bassador, and the guarantee fimd which 
is being raised in connexion with it la 
under tiie management of Mr. P. Oohn and 
Dr. Frederick Rose, Assistant Educational 
Adviser to the London Oounty Council. 
The English manager is Mr. 0. F. Mayer, 
18, Bedford Street, Oovent (harden, W.O. 
Ik Ik :k 

Heard at a recent French Oral Examina- 
tion : Exit small boy, saying as he bowed 
with much dignity : ' Je snis bien charm^. 
Monsieur, d'avoir fait votre connaiasance.' 
Ebahissement du Professeur. 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



Journal of Eduoation, March, 1908: 
Through Composition to Literature (Con- 
stance Fox) ; Shakespeare's School (A. F. 
Leach). 

School World, March, 1908 : English 
Teaching in Junior Forms (W. H. S. Jones 
and F. 6. Blandford) ; two letters on The 
Oral Method (f ) and the Reform Method. 

Educational Times, March, 1908: 
Private Initiative in Education in the 
North of Europe (J. S. Thornton); The 
-^idning of , Teachers (J. 0. Bevan) ; Sug- 
'.liestlOBs ficoii^JLmerica for English Educa- 
^loidyts (F. Carles). 

SoKooL, Marfeh, 1908 : Problems of the 
Secondary Day-School— II. The Parent 
(J. L. Paton). 

The A. M. A., February, 1908 : Should 
Secondary Teachers be Civil Servants f 
(M. E. Sadler). 



Lis Lanousb Modirnsb, March, 1908 ; 
L'Enseignement du Langage (E. Bailly) : 
Le recul du Fran^ais dans les Lyote alle- 
mands (Dr. Feist). 

Dn NxuxRXN Spraohbn, February, 
1908 : Die Mutterspraohe im Fremd- 
sprachlichen Unterricht— YI. (H. BtLttner). 

BOLLBTTINO DI FiLOLOOIA MODSRNA, 

February, 1908: La fonautografia appli- 
cata all' insegnamento delle lingue modeme 
(O. Panconcelli-Calzia). 

MoDBRNA Sprak (we welcome the 
reappearance of this oontemporaiy, whidh 
for a time seemed to be under a cloud. It 
is edited by R Bodhe, assisted by 0. S. 
Fearenside, 0. Polack, and E. A. Meyer). 
January, 1908 : Remarks on the Use of 
the Reflexive Pronouns in Modem Eng- 
lish (C. 0. Koch). February, 1908 : La 
Loi des trois Consonnes (F. P. Leray). 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH TBB ASSISTANCE OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A. A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. No. 4 



JUNE, 1908 



DISCUSSION COLUMN. 

WHAT 18 THE BEST METHOD OF PUBLIC EXAMINATION AND 
INSPECTION ? 

Contributions for this column should be sent within a fortnight of 
the date of issue of this number of Modern Language Teaching to 
Mr. F. B. Kirkman, 19, Dartmouth Park Hill, London, W. 



III. 

Mb. O. W. Samson 

{Aston Orammar School), 

Thx question of examinations ia one 
which no teacher can afford to disregard, 
whateyer his opinion of their real necessity 
and adyisability may be. In the entirely 
perfect state of things, which, with homan 
nature as at present constituted, we cannot 
hope to attain, they would be superfluous 
and harmful. The teacher would then 
be able to certify the proficiency of his 
scholars without recourse to any external 
agency. Bpt at present this is neither 
possible nor desirable. All teachers are 
not efficient or conscientious enough either 
to estimate rightly the standard at which 
their pupils sheuld have arrived in order 
to gain a certificate, or to decide impar- 
tially should they know the standard. 
When it becomes a question of either 



allowing unfit candidates to pass, or ex- 
posing oneself to the charge of incapacity 
as a teacher, the decision is apt to be in 
favour of lowering the standard. 

The only object of an external examina- 
tion can be to standardize the work of 
pupils and test their proficiency. Its in- 
fluence on methods should necessarily only 
be indirect/ in that it should form a test 
of real knowledge, not of useless cram. 
One of the great difficulties in examina- 
tions, and one that is too seldom regarded, 
is that two persons have to be considered 
— the examinee and his teacher. It should 
be the duty of the latter to teach his 
subject, not to prepare for the examination. 
If all teachers were conscientious and 
straightforward in their work the difficul- 
ties of the examiner would be less. Un- 
fortunately there are certain types of 
question which can be answered better by 
one who has specially prepared the 
8 



6W.^^'A 



100 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



answers to them than by another with 
a muoh better knowledge of the language 
who has not. Such are the questions of 
the old, and I hope extinct, type on 
irregular feminines, plurals, etc. It was not 
so much that the question in itself as a test 
of knowledge was necessarily bad, as that it 
gave a great advantage to the teacher who 
taught with one eye on the examination. 
Therefore, bearing in mind that some 
teachers are weak, the examiner should 
endeavour to frame his examination so 
that a sound knowledge of the language 
will alone enable a candidate to pass. 
Now, it seems to me that many of the 
questions which are set, presumably to 
ensure the pupil having been taught on 
Reform Methods, do nothing of the sort, 
and, indeed, may easily lend themselves to 
the same abuses in the way of cramming 
as the old ones. The writing of a passage 
in phonetic script does not necessarily 
imply an ability to pronounce correctly ; 
it simply shows, in all probability, that 
the pupil has done the same thing before. 
The same applies to the framing of 
answers to questions, and of questions 
to answers. Though a pupil who has 
been taught on good methods finds no 
difficulty in such exercises, it would be 
quite possible for .one who had done no 
oral work at all to answer equally well. 

In my opinion, the only real and satis- 
factory tests of knowledge of the written 
language are translation into, and from, 
the language. These are the only things 
that afford a satisfactory standard of com- 
parison, in that the test is exactly the 
same for every student taking that ex- 
amination. This is, of course, always sup- 
posing that the passages set have been 
well chosen so as to contain no eccentrici- 
ties of vocabulary which may favour one 
student as against another. It is useless 
to contend that anyone who cannot trans- 
late straightforward French into English, 
and straightforward English into French, 
knows any French. I should be pleased 
to substitute free composition for the 
passage of translation from the native 
language if I were convinced that the test 



were always an equal one. But, at all 
events in dealing with boys about or 
younger than sixteen, I am convinced that 
the capacity for original composition on 
any subject, even in their own language, 
varies so enormously that I do not think 
the test is a sufficiently fair one. I have 
less to object to the allowance of free oom- 
poeition as an alternative to translation, 
though here one always finds a difficulty 
with the candidate who is evidently try- 
ing to turn out his allotted number of 
words without betraying himself. 

If the above two parts of the examina- 
tion are properly chosen I do not see any 
reason for including anything else on the 
paper, except as a means of distinguishing 
the better candidates from one another. 
If this is desirable then questions on points 
of grammar of some difficulty, and some 
harder phrases or sentences for translation 
might be set, but a candidate who would 
otherwise have failed should not be allowed 
to pass because he betrayed a knowledge 
of knotty points of grammar or idioms, 
after failing in more elementary work. 

With regard to the conversational test, 
I should like to see it made compulsory in 
all modem language examinations. It is 
absurd that a candidate should get no 
credit at all for half the work that he has 
done. And it should be effective and not 
ridiculous. That is to say, a candidate 
should not be allowed to pass in a language 
who is unable to read five words without 
bad mistakes, or to write down five words 
from dictation. It should always be borne 
in mind that the object of the oral 
examination should be to test the ability 
of the candidate to frame sentences with 
some fluency and to pronounce correctly. 
For this purpose, at all events in the 
lower examinations, the conversation should 
be confined either to a set book or to an 
easy piece of unseen. If the candidate 
had to deal with a picture or pictures he 
did not know, or with a general topic 
of conversation which he had never had 
before, it might plaoe him at a serious 
disadvantage. 

The question of dictation is a difficult 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



101 



one, fm* ao much depends on the articula- 
tion of the person who gives the dictation. 
It is difficult to see how it would be 
possible to choose examiners in dictation ; 
bat the pronunciation of different persons 
might quite oonoeivably cause a fluctua- 
tion of 26 per cent, in the marks obtained 
by the candidates. I do not know whether 
this question is ever considered by those 
boards who appoint examiners, but the 
difficulty is by no means an imaginary one. 

The multiplicity of examinations at the 
present day is an eVil in that there is a 
tendency of one body to outbid another 
by lowering the standard and so giving 
a greater number of passes. At present 
the boy usually stays on longer at school 
than he did, and I think one examination 
at about the age of sixteen is all that is 
necessary. An external examination is 
always a disturbing element, and it is better 
for the schoolboy that he should not be 
pulled up by the roots and investigated 
more often than is necessary. One of the 
great objections to the Junior Examina- 
tions is tiiat if a boy is not going to take 
any other examination before he leaves, 
he is inclined to slack off after passing. 

With regard to inspection, I am in favour 
of it if it is useful. If the inspector 
knows what he is talking about, and is 
competent to form a judgment on what he 
sees, he can be very usefuL If, on the 
other hand, inspection is to mean the 
introduction of more red tape, the imposi- 
tion of ill-digested methods on the teacher, 
together with a constant change of those 
methods at the whim of the inspector, it 
will do much harm. It should be the 
ftuction of MoDKSN Lanouaob Tbachino 
to prevent any hampering of the teacher's 
efficiency, and to use its influence to see 
that no one is appointed to examine or 
inspect school teaching who has not had 
considerable experience as a practical 
teacher in a schooL 



IV. 
M&. Harold W. Atkinson. 

The importance of the subject chosen 
for the discussion column is sufficiently 
manifest The italics, which urge members 
not to wait to be invited to contribute, are 
sufficiently prominent to overcome any 
scruples that might otherwise induce a 
member to hide lus farthing rush-light 
under a busheL 

The existing multiplicity of examining 
and inspecting bodies has probably both 
advantages and disadvantages, the former 
likely to be permanent and the latter 
transitory. So long as the multiplicity 
persists it can hardly fail to lead to in- 
efficiency in teaching owing to the effects 
on the schools of the variety of methods 
and standards of the inspections and 
examinations. On the other hand, it is 
fairly certain that such a multiplicity as 
now exists cannot continue much longer. 
Competition, and the recognition of the 
merits of the more competent bodies must 
lead to the elimination of the weaker ones, 
and this competition will consequently 
have led to the establishment of the type 
most suited to the requirements of the 
times. A further cause that will lead to 
the elimination of some of these rival 
bodies is the fact that it will become each 
year less necessary to advertise schools by 
the number of passes in certain of these 
exams. The schools will be recognized as 
efficient, and that will be sufficient adver- 
tisement for the type of school that is 
springing up at the present time. There 
will be an increasing tendency to confine 
examinations to the serving of some 
definite purpose other than advertisement. 
Leaving certificates of two or possibly 
more standards will probably be the main 
type of the examinations in the near 
future. But in the development of this 
type of exam, there is littie doubt that 
tiie varying standards of the exams, that 
now exist will have played a useful part, 
in showing what such exams, should not 
be, and sJso by having given free play 
to initiative in the devising of methods of 
8—2 



102 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



examination, the better of which will 
surviye. The same will be trae also of 
inspection. Tlie present maltiplicity of 
bodies for these porposes means a lack of 
unity in aim among teachers, inasmuch 
as they have to consider, not so much 
what is the best method of arriving at 
certain results in education as results in 
inspections. We cannot consider that a 
system of education confers on a teacher 
that liberty which is essential to success 
so long as that liberty is limited \fy the 
necessity of adapting the teaching to the 
particular examination or inspection to 
which the pupil has to be subjected. 
Such a limitation of the teacher's liberty 
occurs more particularly, perhaps, in con- 
nexion with the less advanced examina- 
tions. In such it is necessary to limit the 
matter to varying extents, and in con- 
sequence the examining bodies have to 
choose what matter they consider should 
be included in each standard of exam. 
The teacher must so arrange his method 
of instruction as to include that re- 
quired for the exam., though he would 
possibly, for other reasons, have preferred 
to take his matter in a different order, 
and defer to later stages portions of it 
which the exam, for which he has to 
prepare his pupils includes in the earlier 
stages. Such exams., then, by their very 
nature, impose to some extent on the 
teacher the general lines of method that 
he must adopt. It seems hardly feasible 
to set alternative papers suited to the 
methods of different teachers. The diffi- 
culty of equating the results of such 
parallel papers is too great. It is, indeed, 
doubtful whether it can really be over- 
come sufficiently to ensure fair results to 
the pupils of different methods. The only 
way out of this difficulty, that such exams, 
do impose to some extent certain methods 
on the teachers, seems to be to abolish the 
exams. In other words, public exams., 
by the results of which the standards of 
pupils from different schools enter into 
comparison with one another, should not 
exist for the lower or earlier stages of 
instruction. Public exams, should test 



results, not methods, except in so far as 
these are tested indirectly by their results, 
while the exams, of junior classes should 
aim less at testing results in themselves, 
as judged by any generally preconceived 
standard, than at testing how far the 
individual teacher's aims for that par- 
ticular stage of instruction have been 
attained. This is best done by internal 
exams, conducted either by the teacher 
himself or, in such cases as it may be pre- 
ferred, by a colleague who understands 
fully the aims that the teacher has had 
in view. The final aims of several teachers 
may be identical, though the methods 
they adopt and the particular knowledge 
they consider it advisable to impart in 
any particular stage of the instruction 
may be very different. For we must not 
forget that though methods vary in their 
efficiency, variations in their details of 
working out are generally less important 
than the skill of the teachers. 

From this point of view such exams, 
as the Preliminary and the Junior Locals 
should be abolished as being injurious to 
the best interests of education. Nor does 
it seem advisable to lay down any very 
definite standards of attainment that 
should be exacted at any particular stage 
of education in the junior classes. In the 
upper classes standards may well be more 
or less definite, but the stages by which 
those standards are to be reached may 
well vary with the different views and 
details of method of the different teachers. 
If I wish to go from London to Edinburgh, 
I should probably be regarded as a lunatic 
if I made Brighton the first stage in my 
journey. But I should consider myself 
entitled to e^joy the liberty of deciding 
whether Orewe, Doncaster, or Derby should 
be the end of my first stage. Nor, I think, 
would any reasonable person grumble at 
which route I took, provided I arrived at 
Edinburgh at the time required. 

Passing now to the consideration of the 
best methods of testing a pupil's knowledge 
of the language, it is clear that, as the 
headings suggested point out, there are 
two branches of knowledge to be tested, 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



103 



each with its two snb-branches. These 
are: Written langoage (anderstanding 
and writing), spoken language (under- 
standing and speaking). For testing the 
understanding of the written language 
nothing seems more soitable than trans- 
lation. We have to test how far the 
papil is capable of assimilating the ideas 
expressed in the language, and devise some 
means by which he can make clear to the 
examiner how far he can do this. This 
means that he must by some means oon- 
yej to the examiner these ideas in a form 
that differs from that in which they are 
preaented to him. This practically limits 
ns to two methods. The reproduction of 
the ideas in their new form must either 
be in the mother-tongue or in the foreign 
one. Now, the latter method is not 
necessarily a test of his power of under- 
standing the language, but involves the 
power of writing or at least of speaking it. 
Many a man who can understand a foreign 
printed work with fair facility would be 
utterly incapable of reproducing the ideas 
of the book in another form in the foreign 
language. We seem, therefore, to have 
nothing left but translation. To produce 
a precis of it is not equivalent. A precis 
cannot contain all the details of the 
original, and consequently some parts 
must be omitted. The examiner cannot 
tell whether such parts have been omitted 
because they were considered by the can- 
didate as unnecessary details, or because 
he did not understand the foreign word or 
phrase in which they were expressed. 

It is, of course, clear that the discussion 
of the use of translation for this purpose 
is something very different from the dis- 
cussion of its use for purposes of teaching, 
though at certain points the two cases 
overlap. 

Similar considerations seem to lead us 
to the use of translation as the best test 
in writing the language. Free composition, 
for which the subject heading only is 
given, has the disadvantage that the can- 
didates are not being tested on an equal 
footing. Their success depends so much 
on their power of essay-writing and 



thought or knowledge concerning the 
subject. A pupil who is proficient so far 
as his knowledge of the language goes 
may easily be handicapped by lack of 
a sufficient basis of material for a free 
composition on the subject or subjects 
set. I do not think that the use of 
translation in examinations is open to 
the objections that are raised against it 
in its use in the process of instruction. 
A pupil who has been carefully trained 
will not look upon the piece of Englisli 
given him to translate as a mass of 
English toords which are to be turned into 
French ones, but rather as a group of icUas 
which are to be reproduced in French. 
Probably most of us have experienced the 
feeling that sometimes occurs when read- 
ing a series of extracts or short references 
to a subject in different languages— the 
feeling of doubt as to what language we 
have been reading last This means that 
the ideas have entered the mind without 
our being conscious of the language that 
has been the medium for conveying them. 
It is therefore possible, I conceive, for a 
well-trained pupil to get the ideas into his 
mind through English, hold them in his 
mind as ideas, and then produce them 
in the required foreign language. These 
considerations point to a solution which 
will avoid the disadvantages both of 
pure translation and of free composition 
of the kind referred to above. A com- 
promise between the two can be effected 
by supplying the material, not merely the 
heading, for a free composition. The 
metliod adopted in some examinations, of 
reading to the candidates a suitable 
passage, and then providing each of them 
with a summary of the chief points of it. 
combines the advantages and avoids the 
difficulties of each method. 

The use of short sentences for translation 
into the foreign language is on rather a 
different footing, as in the case of such 
there would probably be a more conscious 
feeling of actual translation, not necessarily 
of word for word translation, but the 
feeling of producing the equivalent in the 
foreign language. There would be, that 



104 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



18, a more oonsdoos oompariBon of the one 
language with the other. This ia, how- 
ever, I fear, almost nnavoidable in the 
case of snch matter as wonld in most cases 
be introduced in snch sentences in upper 
standard examinations, which is the class 
of examination I have in view, haying by 
my preyiouB arguments eliminated lower 
standard public examinations from our 
schemes. Should such lower exams, have 
to continue, I should . prefer in them to 
test such knowledge, as is often tested by 
short sentences, by such methods as 
reproducing a given passage in changed 
tenses or genders, etc I feel that in the 
upper standards it is necessary to test the 
knowledge of idioms, peculiarities of con- 
struction, etc, and this can only be done 
by some method which forces the pupils 
to tackle them. 

But on the whole these are, perhaps, 
better tested by the incorporation of such 
points in longer translations. When 
special sentences are set for this purpose, 
the pupil has his attention drawn to the 
fact that there is probably something 
catchy, and he is put on his guard. 

The value of dictation is, in my opinion, 
less than it is often supposed to be. So 
long as there was no regular oral test, dicta- 
tion served a purpose, as it did to some 
extent test the pupil's power to recognize 
the foreign words when uttered. When, 
however, there is an oral test the value 
of dictation is, I think, but small. Dicta- 
tion tests various things — power of recogni- 
tion of the spoken words, power to write 
these in correct grammar, quality of hand- 
writing, knowledge of punctuation in the 
foreign language. The first of these is 
tested in the oral examination, the second 
in the written papers ; the third we do not 
want to test in a foreign language as apart 
from any other language (except in the 
case of, say, German script, and this is 
tested in the written papers with equal 
adequacy), and the punctuation is also 
tested with equal or greater completeness 
in the written papers. Thus it appears 
that there is really no further purpose for 
dictation, now that an oral test forms a 



regular part of every properly oonducted 
examination. 

Probably one of the points that wiU 
show most difference of opinion in this 
discussion is the one which deals with the 
use of grammar questions. I should dis- 
tinguish between the facts of grammar and 
the aids to grammar. I believe all will be 
agreed that a knowledge of grammatical 
terminology and formal accidence is neces- 
sary for a proper study of a language, 
though there would be differences as to 
the amount of these that should be intro- 
duced at any particular stage of instmo- 
tion. I should not strongly object, there- 
fore, to the introduction of questions, snoh 
as, 'Give the third person mngnlar of 
prendre,* though at the same time in lower 
standards I should prefer to test such a 
point by requiring its use in a sentence, or 
by conversion from another form of the 
verb in a given passage. The other two 
types of question suggested — *Give ex- 
amples to illustrate the use of ' and ' Give 
the rule for' — I should bar. These are 
questions which are best answered by 
pupils who have been prepared for thsm, 
and prepared by a system which tends to 
make the aids to grammar more prominent 
than the facts. Many rules may be 
valuable temporary aids in learning a 
language, but the sooner the pupQ can 
forget them and work correctly withont 
them, the sooner he will acquire a real 
power in the use of the language. Nor is 
the power to give examples to illustrate 
the use of certain things at all the same 
as the power to use these forms uncon- 
sciously when need arises. We must aU 
know the multiplication table, and we 
must know how to deal with division of 
decimals. But we do not want to be 
able to reel off the rule for division of 
decimals. It is the function of the ex- 
aminer, not of the examinee, to provide 
examples that iUustrate the use of things. 

We now turn to the tests of ability to 
deal with the spoken language. It will be 
convenient to take the headings 6, 7, and 
8 in reverse order. I think that a separate 
test for pronunciation, apart from the 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



105 



oonTvnatioii, is of advantage to the ex- 
aminer rather than to the examination. 
What we want to teat is the papiFs pro- 
nnnoiation as he woold ose it when speak- 
ing. If he has a passage to read, he can 
concentrate his attention on the pronnnda- 
tkm more than when he has at the same 
time to be thinking what he is saying in 
answer to some question. Bnt this more 
earefnl pronunciation is not necessarily the 
same as he would use in ordinary speech 
to a foreigner, and this latter is what we 
really want to test That is, we want to 
find out how far his pronunciation has 
become an unconscious habit, not a matter 
still of conscious effort. This latter we 
get best from his answers to questions, or 
from such other methods as are employed 
in the conversation test To the examiner 
it has the advantage that he can likewise 
concentrate his attention more completely 
on the candidate's pronunciation. This 
advantage has, however, far less value in 
actual fact than it appears to have in 
theory. I think that the examiner can 
follow the pronunciation at the same time 
as the other matters that he has to observe 
in the course of the conversation. The 
reading test gives, it is true, the oppor- 
tunity of testing the candidate's power of 
reading and understanding a passage at 
sight His intonations, etc, will show 
how far he is merely reading a series of 
words, and how far he is reading and at 
the same time understanding the passage. 
This, however, is really fairly well tested 
in the oonversation if some of the ex- 
aminer's questions or remarks are of a fair 
length. I think that the same remarks 
answer fairly completely the question as 
to whether there should be a test, inde- 
pendent of the oonversation, for testing 
ability to speak the language. To ask a 
candidate to give a precis of a passage read 
to him calls into play other faculties than 
the mere speaking of the language. It is 
largely a matter of memory, which is quite 
different from the power to use the lan- 
guage to express thoughts arising in the 
speaker's mind. 
When we oome to the various methods 



that may be used for the conversation test, 
we shall. I think, find a difference of 
opinion. The alternatives suggested are— 
(a) on a set book, {b) on an unseen passage 
read by the candidate, (c) on general 
topics, {d) on pictures given to the candi- 
date. Now, (a) has the drawback that it 
lends itself to special preparation, (&) that 
it is largely dependent on the memory 
power ; a candidate with a memory like 
Macaulay's would make a far more credit- 
able show than one with a less gifted 
memory, though the latter might have a 
greater knowledge of the language ; (c) has 
the drawback that it is very hard work for 
the examiner to find a sufficient number of 
different topics suitable for the occasion, 
especially when there are many candidates 
to examine at the same centre ; {d) has the 
drawback that the description of a picture 
is an art that depends largely on the 
amount of practice that the pupils have 
had in it. 

What, then, are we to do if all these 
methods have their drawbacks T I think 
the solution of the difficulty lies in it 
being understood that no one method need 
necessarily be adhered to, to the exclusion 
of the others. The conversation test is 
probably the most difficult part of a modem 
language examination from the examiner's 
point of view. He must try to give each 
candidate the best opportunity possible of 
showing his power of speech, and this 
depends largely in finding some topic 
which enlists the candidate's interest 
Even if in any examination there is a 
general principle adopted as to the use of 
any one of the methods suggested, the 
examiner should be at liberty to depart 
from it in the case of any candidates 
whose knowledge he seems better able to 
elicit by some other method or combination 
of methods. A combination of the picture 
method and general topics arising out of 
the picture or otherwise offers a chanoe 
of good results. 

The set-book method has advantages, 
however, which cannot be overlooked. If 
a considerable portion of the book, say 
75 or 100 pages, is taken, the possibilities 



106 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



of special preparation of answers to ques- 
tions that the examiner may be expected 
to put are ahnoet entirely eliminated. 
This method has. moreover, the decided 
advantage that the teachers would be 
encouraged to base their oral work on the 
set book, and the advantages of this 
as against unsystematic 'conversation 
lessons ' hardly need insisting on here. 
The examiner has an almost unlimited 
supply of questions, and of questions 
which involve the use of a vocabulary 
with which the candidates have had an 
opportunity of becoming acquainted. It 
must always be remembered that the 
object of an oral examination is not 
merely to test the extent of the candidates' 
vocabulary, but to test their power of 
ready application of such grammatical 
structure and idiom of the language as 
may fairly be expected at their stage of 
instruction. 

The constituent parts of the examina- 
tion, then, should be translation, probably 
in both directions, of unseen passages. In 
these tests comparatively short passages, 
involving different styles and var3ring 
vocabularies, are preferable to longer pieces 
in a uniform style and involving less 
variety of vocabulary. There should also 
be some free composition, for which the 
material is provided. In the estimate of 
the value of the free composition, account 
should be taken not only of absolute 
accuracy in the more elementary facts of 
the language, but also of the knowledge 
that the candidate shows of the more 
advanced facts and constructions. In say- 
ing this I do not mean to suggest that 
accuracy is of minor importance, but 
rather that a paper which has avoided 
difficulties, and is accurate in the forms 
and constructions used, should not count 
as of more value than, or even of equal 
value with, one in which there is accuracy 
in the elements and which at the same time 
includes the use of difficult constructions 
and idioms, even though there be some 
errors in these. My point is that the 
latter class of paper shows more real know- 
ledge of the language and ability to deal 



with a larger range of thought than the 
former. Such free composition papers can 
only be marked by impression. 

The other constituent parts of the 
examination will be the oral tests, the 
character of which I have indicated above. 
I should be inclined to assign equal values 
to each of these three sections. When the 
marks assigned to oral work are compara- 
tively low, there is a tendency for some 
candidates — or shall we say for some 
teachers t — still to neglect the oral work, 
in the hope that good work in the other 
sections will counterbalance deficiencies in 
this part 

We now approach the question of inspec- 
tion. The bodies that send out the in- 
spectors are of less importance than the 
inspectors sent out, but, generally speak- 
ing, these bodies should preferably be 
connected with or form part of the Univer- 
sities, in which term I include the newer 
Universities. The correlation between the 
lower and higher stages of education would 
be thus better developed and maintained 
than is likely to be the case when the 
inspection is in the hands of entirely 
independent bodies. It must, of course, 
be understood that the interests of the 
schools are not to be sacrificed to those of 
the Universities. The frequency of the 
inspections would depend on the apparent 
need in each case of inspections to control, 
or rather aid. the progress of the subjects 
in the schools. Some schools might advan- 
tageously be inspected more frequently than 
others, and I do not think that any fixed 
rule of frequency could well be laid down. 
Probably in many cases once a year would 
be amply sufficient. A change of teacher 
would in some cases probably necessitate 
more frequent inspection, or an extra in- 
spection to see that the standard of the 
teaching was not falling off under the new 
teacher. 

The aim of tlie inspection should not be 
so much to insist on details of method as 
general lines of procedure. The teachers 
should be left as much freedom as possible 
consistent with the attainment of good 
results. The inspector's function should 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



107 



be nther that of oonBoltant and critic than 
of examiner and grumbler. His attitude 
flhoold be rather that of finding ont the 
good points of the teaching without shut- 
ting his eyes to the lees good than of 
grumbling at the less good without seeing 
the good. In this way the general im- 
provement of teaching will be more likely 
to benefit. For it must not be forgotten 
that the inspector can learn from the 
teachers as well as the teachers firom the 
inspector, and the inspector can act as a 
missionary, if we may so put it, in dis- 
seminating valuable points that he has 
observed in any schools that he has visited. 
If his observations could be differentiated 
chronologically, they should be first results 
and then methods rather than the reverse. 
He will then retain a more open mind in 
estimating the value of the instruction, 
will command greater confidence among 
the teachers whom he meets, will encourage 
initiative in individual teachers, and 
generally render his work more serviceable 
to the interests of education. 

Probably the qualifications of inspectors 
suggested by the various contributors to 
this discussion will be very similar. The 
first essential is that he should have had 
a fairly extended teaching experience him- 
self. He must himself have been face to 
face with the difficulties of teaching before 
his comnients of the work of others can 
carry any weight If he has taught in 
different schools and on different methods 
his experience will be all the more valu- 
able, and he will be all the more likely to 
retain an open mind for observing im- 
pfTovements of methods and results. He 
must remain a man, and not aspire to be 
a superman. He must have, too, a 
pleasant tactful manner calculated to set 
at ease the pupils as well as the teachers. 
Whatever he may observe that seems 
worthy of adverse comment, he should 
avoid doing or saying anything to, or in 
the presence of, the class that would in any 
way undermine the pupil's confidence in 
their teacher; while any unobtrusive 
remark that might tend to increase this 
would not be out of place. When, how- 



ever, the time comes for comments either 
in his report or in conversation with the 
headmaster or teachers, he should say 
openly what he thinks. If the inspection 
is carried out in the right way, I do not 
think that any teacher resents, but rather 
that he welcomes, a fair and candid criti- 
cisuL He must at the same time be quite 
ready to recognize any difficulties with 
which the teachers have to deal To be able 
to realize these is one of his most neces- 
sary qualifications ; for the conditions and 
difficulties of different schools, or of the 
same school at different times, vary so 
much, and at any time he may meet 
with conditions that have not previously 
come under his notice. Another point 
which may be worth mentioning is that, 
inasmuch as his visits should be as un- 
obtrusive as possible, he should only in 
exceptional cases expect the regular course 
of the school routine to be altered for his 
visit 

Certain of these recommendations with 
respect to inspectors apply, mtUatis mutan- 
dis, to examiners. The chief point for the 
examiner to bear in mind ia that his 
function is to discover how much the 
examinees know, not to show how much 
more he knows. 

As these remarks have already run to 
some considerable length, I will not pro- 
long them by developing a peroration. 



Mr. G. F. Bridge. 

The question whether examining bodies 
have the right to impose, by the character 
of the papers they set, a particular method 
on the schools appears to me to involve a 
tuggestio falsi. Do examining bodies 
claim any such right? I have never 
myself seen or heard any such preten- 
sions* put forward. Examining bodies 
are, from one point of view, business 
concerns ; and they, or at least some of 
them, are probably prepared to supply 
any article for which there is a sufficient 
demand. There is such keen competition 
amongst them that it is difficult to believe 



108 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACfflNG 



that none oonld be found willing to stock 
a new type of examination paper, were 
there likelj to be an adequate number of 
onatomers. ICoet of them have altered 
the etyle of their questions considerably 
within recent years, and probably would 
be ready to alter them still further. 
When teachers raU against the tyranny of 
examining bodies, one is rather reminded 
of ladies complaining of the tyranny of 
dressmakers. Surely the oonsumers of an 
article are always in a position to make 
their influence effectively felt on the pro- 
ducers. The difficulty is that the teaching 
of modem languages being in an ex- 
perimental and transitional condition, 
every kind of examination paper is in 
request, from papers of the old London 
Matriculation type to those of the type 
exemplified in Professor Adamson's /Vac- 
tiee of Instrudion. And as each school 
has its own method of teaching, it ought 
to have its own method of examination. 
How far the system of providing an 
individual examination for each school 
is practically possible, regard being had 
to the present financial condition of 
secondary schools, is too involved a 
question to discuss here ; but experience 
seems to show that the problem is not in- 
soluble, especially with schools which pos- 
sess, what eveiy school ought to possess — 
namely, a typewriter and a skilled operator. 
Given the desirability of a system of 
individual examination, it follows that 
inspection and examination should be 
dosely allied, and that the former should 
invariably precede the latter. igynTniwing 
bodies should also be the inspecting bodies ; 
they would not thereby cease to influence 
methods, but they would influence them 
in a better way than they do at present. 
A body which both inspects and examines 
ought unhesitatingly to oondemn any 
methods proved by experience to be 
bad, or which are evidently merely the 
refuge of incompetence or laziness, and 
ntuae to examine any school which persists 
in using them ; but it ought to be willing 
to test the efficacy of any new plans for 
giving a training in modem languages. 



In the stage at which thingi are at 
present, experimentation needs enoooxage- 
ment, and it is certainly a weaknees in 
our present system of examination that it 
discourages the trying of experiments. 

In discussing this question there aze 
two points which are often forgotten. The 
first is that some one must settle what 
methods the modem language teaehen are 
to employ. There are a large number of 
schools in which neither the principal nor 
any of the staff is competent to do this. 
Sometimes it is a text-book which dictates 
the system of instruction ; sometimes a 
teacher, ignorant of the principles under- 
lying modem methods, essays to use them 
after some fashion of his own invention — 
with disastrous results. Examinations 
perform a useful function in preventing 
many teachers of this type from indulg- 
ing their own whims. A generation henoa, 
when all teachers of modem languages aia 
well instracted and well trained, all may 
perhape be allowed to go their own way. 

The second point is that the present 
system of general examinations serves a 
useful purpose in providing a standard at 
which schools can aim, and by which they 
can judge themselves. Such a standard 
ought to exist for each class of school. 
Under a system of individual examination 
of schools, it would devolve upon the 
inspectors to maintain a conception of 
this standard in their own minds, and to 
show schools where, if anywhere, thej 
fell short of it The duties of the 
inspectors would become more extensive 
and more difficult, and I cannot therefore 
agree with Mr. Brigstocke*s suggestion 
that the junior inspectors should be 
actual teachers, given a year's leave of 
absence in order to inspect schools. No 
doubt the teachers would benefit by seeing 
schools other than their own, but the 
institutions inspected by them would 
probably benefit considerably less. A 
plan which would prevent any junior 
inspector from ever obtaining more than 
a few months' experience does not seem 
very hopeful. It reminds one a little of 
certain excessively democratic oonstitutioiis 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



109 



under which no magistrate was allowed 
to hold office for more than a month, leet 
he shonld become too powerftd. One 
wonders whether it ia not a subtle device 
of Mr. Brigstooke's for drawing the teeth 
of the inspectorate. Certainly nothing 
eoold be better calcolated to destroy its 
authority and its nsefolness. 

I ventnre to add a few words on a 
matter which was not incladed in the 
syllabos which accompanied the announce- 
ment of the discussion, and that is ex- 
aminations in books read in class. The 
omission was a curious one, for modem 
language teachers, to judge from the tone 
of the general meeting, seem agreed that 
a comprehension and appreciation of 
literature should be one of the chief aims 
of linguistic instruction, and if it is to be 
80, the question of how that comprehen- 
sion and appreciation is to be tested 
assumes importance. If boys and girls 
are to read books, they must be examined 
in books, for nothing is more certain than 
that any sulrject, or branch of a subject, 
which is exempt from examination, will 
be neglected. It will not do to say that 
the reading of books is only a means of 
acquiring a knowledge of the language, 
and that there are other and sufficient 
means of testing that knowledge. The 
book is not merely a means ; it is, or it 
on^t to be, an end in itself. The 
olasneal boy reads, or ought to read, 
Thuoydides, not merely to learn Greek, but 
to study history and politics; and the 
French pupil ought to read the Contrat 
Social^ not solely to learn French, but 
also to become acquainted with a remark- 
able phase of human thought which pro- 
duced the most momentous event in 
modem histoiy. The greatest danger 
which lies ahead is that, under our present 
system of education by specialists working 
in watertight compartments, language 
teachers will regard linguistic instraction 
in the narrower sense as the only thing 
with which they are conoemed, and will 
forget that ideas and information are more 
important than language, which exists 
merely for the purpose of conveying ideas 



and information horn, one mind to 
another. In the highest forms at least 
an examination in the contents of the 
books read should be regarded as being 
as necessary as an examination in their 
verbal and superficial meaning. It is 
impossible at the end of a brief article 
to consider at length how this should be 
done, and perhaps it would serve no 
useful purpose to do so, for there are 
many ways by which the end sought can 
be attained, and every examiner would 
probably have his own methods. I wish 
only to emphasize the importance of a 
point which is now generally neglected. 

VI. 
Mb. H. S. Bebssford Webb. 

The observations I propose making with 
regard to Modem Language examinations 
are the result of a familiarity of many 
years with the inner working and methods 
of conducting such examinations, held by 
various public bodies and under a variety 
of conditions. 

It is very much the fashion to abuse 
these necessary tests, and though, for 
reasons which do not require recapitula- 
tion, I should be far from asserting that 
the best candidates always come out at the 
top, and the worst at the other end, there 
can be little doubt that they go a long 
way towards separating the sheep from the 
goats ; they act as a stimulus both to 
teacher and pupil, and are absolutely in- 
dispensable, in some form or another, for 
the purpose of filling up appointments, 
admitting to higher grades, and for many 
ol^er objects. 

There has recently been a lengthy dis- 
cussion in your columns on the value of 
translation, but whether it is beneficial to 
the study of a language or not, as long as 
examinations exist, translation will have 
to be taught and practised — at any rate 
in the middle forms of schools. No one 
has suggested, and it is hardly possible to 
do so, any efficient substitute — at most not 
more than a modification. Since the intro- 
duction of the Reform Method a portion 



110 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



of the time formerly allotted to it has been 
set apart for oral work. It ia therefore only 
natural that is has suffered considerably. 
Mr. Brigstocke's suggestion, to require the 
reproduction, rather than the translation, 
of a long passage, is theoretically sound, 
but would have in practice many draw- 
backs. It would lengthen many papers 
already of ample proportions, and would 
be difficult to mark with any fairness. 
Another suggestion — that a passage should 
be read out in the foreign language and 
written down from memory — would also be 
a capital test, but equally impracticable, 
for obvious reasons, except in private 
examinations. In marking translations 
from the foreign language, especially in 
advanced work, credit should always be 
given for a good English style, so long as 
no essential points are missed. 

Dictation is a good test, particularly in 
French, but too high marks should not be 
awarded to it, as here the personality of 
the examiner — his more or less distinct 
utterance— comes in, besides considerations 
of acoustics and the acute or dull sense of 
hearing in the candidates. 

In intermediate or higher examinations 
an original essay is generally admitted, 
and usually with satisfactory results. For 
the most part, it can hardly be marked by 
any other than the * impression ' system ; 
therefore too high marks should not be 
allotted to it 

The Scotch Education Department has 
for some years past adopted the plan of 
having a short story read out in English 
by the superintendent at each centre or 
school, to be reproduced from memory in 
French or German by the candidate. This 
has the advantage of giving him or her 
some material to work upon, limits the 
range of his treatment, and being easier to 
mark with fairness, is satisfactory to the 
conscientious examiner. There are many, 
no doubt, who would give the preference 
to an original composition, as giving more 
scope for the intelligence and imagination 
of the candidate, but as the composition 
from a passage read out has held its 
ground for many years, it evidently meets 



with the approval of those most con- 
cerned. 

The oral test, which is unfortonately 
not always practicable, and, where it is, 
is not always taken advantage of — ^possibly 
in many cases owing to the expense — has 
of late years been introduced into many 
public examinations. It has its advan- 
tages and its drawbacks. Berides being a 
test of the year's work, it is useful to the 
examinee as an inducement to try to 
express himself accurately in the language, 
and perhaps supplies him with a certain 
amount of assurance, when he comes to 
converse with natives. Its drawbacks, 
besides those referred to by Mr. Brigstocke, 
are the variety of methods adopted by 
different examiners and the ideals they 
keep before them in marking the results. 
It should in any case be the endeavour of 
the examiner to put his interlocutor as 
much at his ease as possible by introducing 
his conversation by simple remarks or 
questions — for nervousness is, unfortu- 
nately, by no means a negligible quantity 
in the examinee, though it is not always 
the self-complacent candidate who enters 
with a jaunty air, saying : * Guten Moiigen, 
mein Horr. Wie geht es Ihnen heutef 
who acquits himself best in the end. As 
to the best way of conducting the conver- 
sational part of the viva voce in the short 
space of time it is possible to set apart for 
the purpose, so that the lai^r share of 
talk falls on the examinee and not on the 
examiner, systems and opinions must 
necessarily greatly vary. I should be sony 
to cast my vote in favour of any particular 
method. In practice I have myself gene- 
rally obtained good results from discussing 
some imaginary incident, such as a street 
accident, an excursion, or a means of loco- 
motion, the only difficulty being the lack 
of imaginative faculty in the candidates. 

Ck)n8idering that oral examinations in 
modem languages are more or leas in their 
infancy, I feel sure that your correspon- 
dents' views on the subject would be 
welcome, both to teachers and examiners. 

One point only remains for me to touch 
upon ; that is, the treatment of grammar 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



111 



in examinatioiifl. Since the introdaction 
of the direct method there has been a 
tendency to Him iniah the severity of this 
test. This is nnfortonate, especially as 
regards German. To me it has always 
seemed an error to assume that what was 
applicable to the study of French was 
necessarily so in the case of German. 
French, being the ' predominant partner.' 
has had most consideration in the matter, 
German being obliged to accommodate 
itself. Owing to the highly inflectional 
nature of the latter language, any dis- 
oooiBgement of the study of its grammar 
is to be deprecated. If not mastered at 
school, it is not likely to be elsewhere. I 
do not, of course, allude to the learning 
by rote of long lists or paradigms, but to 
constant practice and the necessity of the 
teacher uudsting on correct grammatical 
forms and constructions in whatever the 
pupil says or writea Nor do I advocate 
the setting of questions on grammatical 
subtleties, such as the plural of blanc-seingy 
the genders of Ohm and SehunUst, etc., 
but otherwise excellent compositions or 
translations from the foreign language, 
which teem with faults in elementary 
accidence, are of only too frequent occur- 
rence. The same remark applies to the 
oral test, though perhaps nervousness and 
want of practice account for much. 

I trust that in the above remarks, ex- 
tended far beyond what I originally con- 
templated, I have not appeared to be too 
dogmatic. Such was remote from my 
intention. No one will welcome more than 
myself the views of other examiners on the 
subject My only object was to jot down 
a few observations which have occurred to 
me from time to time, when marking 
papers or conducting orals. 

Since writing the above, I notice that 
the Committee on Modem Language 
Teaching in Secondary Schools ascribes 
the infrequent adoption of the reform 
method to the 'pernicious influence of 
external examinations.' If by this the 
Committee mean to imply that most ex- 
aminations are not up to date, and should 
be adapted to the new method, I can only 



say, without entering into a discussion on 
the respective merits of the old and the 
new, that many examining bodies have 
much modified the form of their papers of 
late years, that some I could mention are 
apparently constructed to suit the re- 
formers, and that with the improvement 
in grammar teaching alluded to above, 
those apparently taught in this way (for 
from internal evidence this can generally 
be assumed by the examiner) can acquit 
themselves with great credit in such ex- 
aminations as the Cambridge Locals. 

The following revised regulations for 
1908. issued by the Oxford and Gam- 
bridge Joint Board, will be of interest, as 
they mark a new departure : 

LOWSR CZRTIFIOATX. 

The regulations for the examination in 
French Grammar and Composition have 
been revised in order to meet a demand 
for two alternative forms suitable respec- 
tively for, A, candidates taught on the 
Direct Method, and, B, those taught by 
the Translation Method. 

Translation will be omitted from the 
A form of this paper. 

In both forms direct questions on gram- 
mar will be avoided, and the forms will 
be as follows : 

A. Direct Method. 

I. Questions in French, of the type 
common in Reform text-books, requiring 
the application of a sound elementary 
knowledge of grammar, idiom and vocabu- 
lary. 

II. Free Composition. 

B. Translation Method. 

I. English sentences for translation into 
French requiring the application of an 
elementary knowledge, as in A I. 

II. Continuous Prose Translation into 
French. 

C. As the distinction between the two 
methods here made does not correspond 
to the practice of all schools, and as the 
Board is averse to hindering in any way 
the free development of linguistic method, 
candidates taking the B form will be 
allowed to substitute A IL for B IL, 



112 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



%.€,, Free Oompoeitioii for Oontmnoai 
Prose Tnuulation. The lame etandArd of 
attainment will be exacted in both. 

Candidates will be expected to satisfy 
the examiners in each part of the form of 
examination that the j select. 



L French Questions. 
II. Free Composition. 



B. 



In addition to the above^ the i 
tion will consist, as heretofore, of Unpie- 
pared Translation from French and Dicta- 
tion. 

The following table will show the 
changes at a glance : 

C. 
Sentence Translatioii. 
Free Composition. 



Sentence Translation. 
ContinuoQs Translation from 
English into French. | 

The above aUernativee will be printed on the earns paper. 
III. Unprepared Translation from French. 
lY. DioUtion. 



STRAYING. 



A CONFESSION. 



I WAS once present at a meeting of an 
association at which two members had 
to be appointed to andit the acoonntB. 
Walking home with one of them, I asked 
him : ' Do yon know book-keeping ?* 
• No/ he replied, * Fve neyer learnt book- 
keeping '; then added reflectiyely : ' But 
I have taught it'! I was once asked 
myself to learn Spanish in the holidays 
in order to teach it the next term t I did 
so too — taught it, I mean. Queer results 
are sure to follow when a man is told off 
to teach some unaccustomed subject. I 
once knew a man who held the theory that 
it was then a master did his best teaching ; 
for, he argued, he is in the first place more 
interested, being engaged for the time 
being in learning the subject, and in the 
second place the difficulties of the subject 
are more vividly present to his mind. The 
thought occurs that the difficulties might 
be too vividly present to his mind ; but I 
shall not attempt to prove my friend's 
logic fallacious, logic being a subject that 
I have not even taught. 

Such adventurous work may have a 
charm of its own ; yet it was with no 
bounding of the heart that I heard I had 
to take a form once a week in English. 
Not that I don't know English ; I could 
talk to a class in my own way about the 



adventures of Yiola or Falstaff— though it 
would be rash of me to promise that they 
would pass any examination afterwards. 
But, according to the Time Table, I ?ras to 
teach ' parsing and analysis ' ; and although 
I know something even about parsing and 
analysis, I don't know much, and I could 
easily foresee the possibility of meeting a 
class that might know more. There are 
things in parsing that have always puzzled 
me, and I could not be expected to e^joy 
the prospect of some boy, taught by a 
better master than mjrself, explaimng 
them, to my discomfiture. 

Fortunately, I knew these boys already. 
For about two years they had been learn- 
ing German from me. I had made their 
acquaintance, so to speak, in German, and 
all our intercourse so far had been in 
German, for we had adhered strictiy to the 
principles of the Direct Method. Look- 
ing back to the occasions when I had met 
a boy's outburst of English with the oalm 
statement that I was German — ^bom in 
Frankfort, as I solemnly assured them, 
much to their amusement— there was even 
something pleasant in the prospect of at 
last exchanging thought with them in their 
own language. 

In the German class there had, of 
course, been a good deal of talk about 



STRAYING 



113 



Mtmpiiiitte and Nsbena&tu, and so on ; ao 
when we began to do some analysis we 
found it quite natural to torn to Gennan 
for examples or illustrations. Having 
onoe made sore that they all knew the 
diiferenoe between a dependent and an in- 
dependent sentence, I think I spent most 
of my time comparing the salient con- 
stroctions of English and German. I 
found myself taking a piece of English 
and saying : ' Now if we wanted to express 
that in German we should have to say it 
in this way,' writing both on the black- 
board. This comparison of the two lan- 
guages seemed to interest them very much ; 
and it did not interfere with the foreign 
atmosphere of the German class, where 
things still went on as before. 

But even though I turned the English 
lesson partly into a German lesson, parsing 
and analysLB week after week began to 
palL I did not seem to get enough fun 
out of the subject It did not interest me. 
I inwardly rebelled against my ' unmean- 
ing taskwork,' and found myself tempted 
at every moment to wander off to something 
elae. Fortunately, a diversion was created 
in the following way. I don't pronounce 
the word ' parsing * with [z], but with [s]. 
In this, most dictionaries are on my side. 
My pupils pronounced the word with a 
voiced sibilant, as most English people 
do. So I promptly accused them of 
mispronunciation. The dictionary was 
brought, and it supported me, as I had 
expected. I may be wrong, but if so 
most dictionaries are wrong also. In any 
ease the incident was welcomed by me, for 
it led on to a very interesting discussion 
about English phonetics ; the boys, having 
already done something at phonetics in 
the German class, found it very amusing 
to study the phonetics of their own lan- 
guage. It was even useful: some faults 
of pronunciation were corrected, and 
amongst other things we drew up a short 
list of words commonly mispronounced. 
We all eigoyed this little raid into other 
territory, chiefly, I suppose, from the 
knowledge that we should have been doing 
something elae. 



Alas I having once strayed from the path 
of duty, I only became, as you shall see, 
increasingly reckless, going hero and thero, 
a sort of schoolmaster poacher. 

It is part of my unreasonableness that 
I have a passion for wanting to find out 
why I am teaching a subject ; I even like 
my pupils to have some glimmering of a 
notion why they are learning it. It often 
seems to me as if this were the first thing 
to establish, one's work thereafter being 
founded on an idea common to teacher 
and taught. I must have had some such 
ideas babbling in my mind when one day 
I came into class and addressed the boys 
in this strain : ' You fellows follow after 
all sorts of hobbies : some of you collect 
stamps, others take photographs, more of 
you make toy engines, and so on. It is a 
wonder to me that no boy ever takes up 
as a hobby the study of his own language, 
which would be not only more profitable 
than any of these, but, to my mind, more 
interesting. One's own language deserves 
always to be treated with reverence and 
affection ; but the study of it, considered 
as a favourite pursuit, would be a source 
of interest and delight throughout the 
whole of one's life.' Having said a great 
deal more to this effect, I set out to explain 
to them what the study of English meant. 
We had already had discussions about 
English speech ; I now tried to sketch for 
them in broad outline the origin and 
development of the language. I had 
something to go upon, for we had already 
met in the German class many resem- 
blances between English and German, 
which had excited their curiosity: I 
began with the invasion of Britain by the 
Low German tribes, and worked on to the 
other great historical events that had 
affected the growth of the language. We 
continued on this tack for several lessons. 
Specunens of Middle English and Anglo- 
Saxon were shown them ; a simple pieoe 
of Anglo-Saxon, written on the board and 
explained to them, was a revelation. In- 
deed, we had reason to think that our 
knowledge of German could help us more 
in our 'researohes' than our knowledge 



114 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



of Latin. Whether any of them have 
sinoe become ardent students of their own 
language I cannot tell ; but I know that 
one boy became more eager than I had ex- 
pected. I had told them that * B^wulf ' 
was the oldest literary work in the English 
language ; so old, I had said, that it was 
even doubtful whether it had been brought 
to Britain by the Teutonic tribes, or com- 
posed after their arrival. The following 
Thursday, this youth brought a copy o^ 
' B^wulf ' into class— he had procured it 
at the local library— and wanted me, to 
my embarrassment, to translate it to them 
A livre auvert ! 

In the meantime the class did one home- 
work a week, and this necessitated occa- 
sional returns to the study of grammar. 
It was on one of these occasions that I 
was reminded of the fact, which I had 
learnt as a child without understanding 
it, that prosody is one of the divisions of 
grammar 4 the four divisions being — ^let 
me remind you — orthography, etymology, 
syntax, and prosody. I seized on the 
fact with joy. I determined to teach them 
prosody. They had already learnt the out- 
lines of German prosody, and I remem- 
bered the interest the subject had excited, 
treated, though it had been, in a foreign 
medium. I now began to wonder what 
these boys might know about English 
prosody, and I was scarcely surprised to 
find that they knew nothing. So I set 
to work explaining the different kinds of 
metre, using as illustrations such beauti- 
fhl passages as I knew would appeal to 
them. One thing leading on to another, 
I next found occasion to speak of the dif- 
ferent kinds of poetry, giving them ex- 
amples. Eventually, I conceived the idea 
of teaching them verse composition. 
When I first broached this sulirject there 
was some evident shyness at the idea of 
' writing poetry '; but when I insisted that 
writing poetry and doing verse composi- 
tion were widely different things the feel- 
ing disappeared, and they entered with 
keenness into the spirit of the adventure. 

I proceeded as follows. I took some 
American verses, which I felt sure they 



would never have seen, paraphrased them, 
and giving them the paraphrase, I asked 
for a rendering in verse. When the 
versions were brought into class they 
were read aloud, criticized, and in the 
end compared with the original, which 
was then written on the board. My first 
attempt was with a poem called Sun and 
ShadotD, by Oliver Wendell Holmes, of 
which I give the first two stanzas : 

As I look from the isle, o'er its billows of 
green. 
To the billows of foam-crested blue. 
Yon bark, that afar in the distance is seen. 

Half droaming, my eyes shall pursue : 

Now dark in the shadow she scatters the 

spray 

As the chaff in the stroke of the flail ; 

Now white as the sea-guU, she flies on her 

way. 

The sun gleaming bright on her saiL 

Yet her pilot is thinking of dangers to 
shun, — 
Of breakers that whiten and roar ; 
How little he cares, if in shadow or sun 

They see him who gaze from the shore I 
He looks to the beacon that looms ttom 
the reef, 
To the rock that is under his lee. 
As he drifts on the blast, like a wind- 
wafted leaf, 
O'er the gulfs of the desolate sea. 

These two verses were written on the 
board, read through, and explained where 
necessary. The metre was examined, the 
dancing lightness of the anapsestic measure 
evidently quite taking the fancy of the 
class. Then the development of the poet^s 
thought was dealt with, and the boys 
were allowed to make suggestions as to 
how the third verse should be written, to 
conclude the poem. Finally, I gave them 
a rough paraphrase of it, and asked them 
to write it at home. I looked forward 
with considerable interest to the next 
lesson, wondering what they would bring 
me. I found their efforts rather crude, 
as was only to be expected in a first 
attempt on the part of schoolboys ; but 
on the whole they were by no means 
entirely disappointing. Two or three 
were even quite good. The only one that 
I can now procure is not one of the beat, 
but it may interest the reader ; it was 



STRAYING 



115 



written by a boy who asnally shone more 
in the football field than in the claesroom. 
Hie yeraion will easily be distingoished 
from the original, which I give also : 

As we drift on the ooean of life in onr bark 

Some dreamers oft at us may gaze ; 
They see ns sometimes in the shadow so 
dark, 
Sometimes in the son's brightest rays, 
Thoogh we pass in the shadow onr coarage 
shan^t fail. 
At the rudder we'll still firmly stand, 
We shaQ not change our course, but we'll 
put on all sul 
And care naught how we look from the 
land! 



Thus drifting afar to the dim-yaulted oayes 

Where life and its yentures are laid, 
The dreamers who gaze while we battle the 
wayes 
May see ns in sunshine or shade ; 
Yet true to our course though the shadows 
now dark, 
We'll trim our broad sail as before. 
And stand by the rudder that goyems the 
bark. 
Nor ask how we look from the shore ! 



From this on the class reyelled in 
composition, to the complete neglect of 
'parsing and analysis.' I think they 
eyen gained a certain fiAcility in the 
exercise, bringing me in the end quite a 
fiur rendering into English of Der ChUe 
KwtMTod, Shortly afterwards I parted 
from them. I still correspond with some 



members of the class in German; for 
German was after all the chief link 
between us. Writing some time ago to 
the youth whose effort I haye quoted 
aboye, I was reminded of the English 
class, and I asked him if he had forgotten 
it, and whether he could giye me one of 
his efforts at yerse. I giye, wrftattm, 
part of his reply : 

Geehrter Herr K 1 

Ich habe mein altes englischen Heft 
immer behalten, und kann deshalb Ihre 
Wiinsche yollziehen. Ich errinere mich 
mit grossem Yergniigen an die schOnen 
Zeiten, die wir mit Ihnen in den englisch- 
en Stunden zuzubringen pflegten. Sie 
haben mich gelehrt die Poesie zu lieben, 
und nun, wahrend der letzten zwei Jahren 
habe ich am wenigstens ein Wenig yon 
jedem beriihmten englischen Diohter 
gelesen. Nach meiner ICeinung hat 
Longfellow die bests Poesie geschrieben. 
Ich habe ein besseree Gedioht als 
' Byangeline ' nie gelesen. Moore, Byron, 
und Bums sind, ick glaube. die besten yon 
den anderen. Ich habe einige Biioher 
gekauft und habe jetct die Werke yon 
17 Dichtem. . . . 

But it is well no inspector or head 
master got on my tracks, or I might haye 
been made to repent of my trifling I 

E. 



THE MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHER'S REFERENCE 

LIBRARY. 

The first instalment of the revised This will contain the following 



list of books appeared in VoL HI., 
Na 8 (p. 240). For various reasons 
the publication of the second has 
been delayed ; the third will, it is 
hoped, appear in the next number. 



sections : Language, Grammar, 
Pronunciation, Dictionaries. 

Comments and suggestions are 
invited; they should be addressed 
to the Editor. 



French. 
History and Geography. 
K LAVISSE & A. RAMBAUD. Histoire g^n^rale du iy« d^le k 
nos jours. 12 vols. (Colin, Paris.) 13s. 4d. each vol. 

9 



116 MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 

E. LAVISSE. Histoire de France. (Ck>lin, Paris.) 7 vols, have 

appeared, 12 francs each. 
DEMOUNS. Histoire de France. (Didot, Paris.) 4 vols. 88. 4d. 
CORIUSABD. Histoire de I'Europe et de la France. (Masson, Paris.) 

4 vols. 15s. 
V. DURUY. Introduction g^n^rale 4 ITiistoire de France. (Hachette.) 

38. 

DUCOUDRAY. Lemons completes dliistoire de France. (Hachette.) 

28. 

Mmb. de WITT (fU0 GUIZOT). La France k travers les siMea 

(Hachette.) 38. 9d. 
M. B. ZELLER et ses Collaborateurs. L'histoire de France racont^ 

par les contemporains. Des origines k la mort de Henri IV. 

(Hachette.) 16 vols. lOd. each. 
MICHELET. Extraits historiques, choisis et annot^ par Ch. 

Sei^obos. (Colin, Paris.) 28. 6d. 
MICHELET. Notre France: sa g^graphie, son histoire. (Colin, 

Paris.) 3s. 
MONNIER. Notre belle patrie. Sites pittoresques de la France. 

(Hachette.) 28. 6d. 

F. BOURNON. Petite histoire de Paris. Illustrated. (Colin, 

Paris.) Is. 4d. 
J. E. C. BODLEY. France. (Macmillan.) 12s. 
JERVIS & HASSALL. The Student's France. (Murray.) 7s. 6d. 
K. STEPHENS. French History for Schools. (Macmillan.) 3b. 6d. 

Life and Ways. 
A. RAMBAUD. Histoire de la civilisation contemporaine en France. 

(Colin, Paris.) 48. 2d. 
A. RAMBAUD. Petite histoire de la civilisation fran9aise. (Colin, 

Paris.) Is. 6d. 
M. BETHAM-EDWARDS. France of To-Dav : a Survey, Comparar 

tive and Retrospective. 2 vols. (Percival.) 7s. 6d. 
P. G. HAMERTON. French and English: a Comparison. (Macmillan.) 

10s. 6d. 
H. LYNCH. French Life in Town and Country. (Newnes.) 

38. 6d. net. 
R. KRON. French Daily Life. (Dent^ 28. 6d. net 
SARRAZIN & MAHRENHOLTZ. Frankreich, seine Geschichte, 

Veriassung und staatlichen Einiichtungen. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 

58. 6d 
£. HILLEBRAND. Frankreich und die Franzosen. (Triibner, Strass- 

burg.) 4s. 

German. 
History and Geography. 
LAMPRECHT. Deutsche Geschichte. (Gartner.) 11 vols. £4 12s. 
KAMMEL. Werdegang des deut^hen Volkes. (Grunow.) 2 vols. 

5s. 6d. 
D. MtTLLER. Geschichte des deutschen Volkes. (Vahlen, Berlin.) 5s. 
F. RATZEL. Deutschland. (Grunow.) 28. 6d. 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHER'S REFERENCE LIBRARY 117 

S. WHITMAN. Iinperial Germany. (Heinemann.) 28. 6d. 

K F. HENDERSON. History of Germany in the Middle Ages. 

(BeU.) 7s. 6d. net. 
H. LICHTENBERGEK L'AlIemagne modeme, son Evolution. 

(Flammarion, Paris.) ds. 
K LAYISSE. Essais sur TAllemagne imp^riale. (Hachette.) 3s. 
P. KNOETEL. Bilderatlas zur deutschen Geschichte. (Velhagen & 

Elasing^ 3s. 
H. LUCE^NBACH. Abbildongen zur deutschen Geschichte. 

(Miinchen^ Is. 6d. 

F. W. PUTZGER. Historischer Atlas der alteren, mittleren und 

neueren G^eschichte. (Velhagen & Erasing.) 3s. 6d. 

Life and Ways. 

H. MEYER. Deutsches Volkstum. Illustrated. (Bibliographisches 
Institut) 158. 

G. STEINHAUSEN. Geschichte der deutschen Eultur. Illustrated. 

(Bibliographisches Institut.) 17s. 

E. BIEDERMANN. Deutsche Yolks- und Eulturgeschichte. (Wies- 
baden.) 7s. 6d. 

A. SACH. Deutsche Heimat^ Landschaft und Volkstum. Illustrated. 
(Halle.) 78. 6d. 

W. H. DAWSON. Germany and the Germans. (Chapman & Hall.) 
£1 6s. 

W. H. DAWSON. German Life in Town and Country. (Newnes.) 
3s. 6d. net. 

Mrs. ALFRED SIDGWIGK Home Life in Germany. (Methuen.) 
lOs. 6d. net 

R KRON. German Daily Life. (Dent.) 2s. 6d. net. 

PiSRE DIDON. Les Allemands. (Caiman Levy, Paris.) 6s. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 



Ths OTdinary monthly meeting of the 
Exeontive Committee was held at the 
Oollege of Preceptors on Saturday, March 
28. 

Present: Messrs. Somerville (chair), 
Allpress, Atkins, yon Glehn, Hntton, 
Biilner-Barry, Miss Morley, Messrs. Ripp- 
mann, Twentyman, and the Hon. Secre- 
tary. 

Letters expressing regret for inability 
to attend were read from Dr. Brenl, Pro- 
fessor Fiedler, Messrs. Eirkman, Payen- 
Payne, PoUard, and Miss Shearson. 

The minutes of the last meeting were 
read and confirmed. The Publications 
Sub-Committee presented another report 



on the Modem Language Review, and it 
was resolved that the following resolutions 
should be submitted to the General Com- 
mittee on May 80 : 

'That the Association will guarantee 
£50 towards the expenses of producing 
the Review^ on condition (a) that members 
be entitled to purchase the Review at half 
the published price, or as nearly half as 
may be found possible; {b) that the 
Association be entiUed to nominate not 
less than half the Committee of Manage- 
ment; (c) that the connexion of the 
Association with the Review be recognized 
ia the Review,' 

' That it is desirable that the published 
9—2 



118 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



price of the Btview ahoold be not lets than 
the anniuJ snbecription to the Associa- 
tion, pins the oost of the Xmfiew to 
memben.' 

It was further decided that the qaeetion 
of the amount of the annoal snbsoription 
should be considered at the General Com- 
mittee meeting. 

It was resolved that the amount paid 
per member to Messrs. A. and 0. Black 
for ICoDXRN Lakouaok Tbaohiko should 
be increased to 8s. 

The following new members were 
elected: 

Rev. £. Hammonds, M.A., Bishop Otter 
Oollege, Ohichester. 

W. H. McPherson, M. A.. King Edward's 
Grammar School, Birmingham. 

8. W. Meek, M.A., Manchester Gram- 
mar SchooL 

M. Montgomery, M.A., 14, Brunswick 
Walk, Cambridge. 



Miss B. M. Munro, 16. Addison Ooort 
Gardens, W. 

R. G. Procter, M.A.. Elstow School, 
Bedford. 

J. N. Swann, M.A., Malvern OoU^^e. 

F. J. Widdowson, M.A., Christ's 
Hospital 

Mr. D. L. Savory was appointed to 
represent the Association at the annual 
meeting of the Neuphilologonverband at 
Hanover next Whitsuntide. 

% % % 

Arrangements have been made for the 
display of the Travelling Bxhibitioa at 
Leeds from May 9 to 16, with meetings 
on the two Saturdays, which will be 
addressed by Professor Bippmann and 
Miss Purdie, and at Birmingham, in con- 
junction with the Birmingham Teachen' 
Association, from May 16 to May 80. 



BOARD OP EDUCATION : REGULATIONS FOR 
SECONDARY SCHOOLS. 



In the regulations just issued we 
notice an important change with 
regard to the teaching of languages. 
In the prefatory memorandum we 
read: 

' The regulations have prescribed, since 
1904, that in a school where two languages 
other than English are included in the 
ourrioulum, and Latin is not one of these, 
the Board will require to be satisfied that 
the omission of Latin is for the educational 
advantage of the school. By a slight 
alteration of this rule (Article 6), it is 
now made clear that the provision of 
instruction in Latin need not in this case 
be for all the pupils, but that it shall have 
a place in the curriculum, either by itself 
or alternatively with a modem Unguage 
for such pupils as desire to take it. This 
will have the effect in a number of schools 
of providing informally the alternative 
courses which in larger and more, highly 



organized schools are formally distin- 
guished as a classical and a modem side.* 

Article 6, in so far as it refers 
to foreign languages, used to run as 
follows : 

'Where two languages other tiian 
English are taken, and Latin is not one of 
them, the Board will require to be satisfied 
that the omission of Latin is for the 
educational advantage of the school.' 

The following wording has now 
been substituted : 

' Where two languages other than Eng- 
lish are provided, but no provision is made 
for Instraction in Latin, the Board will 
require to be satisfied that the omission of 
Latin is for the educational advantage of 
the school.' 

This change will be very welcome 
to Modem Language teachers, and 



THE GERMAN PLAYS AT THE NEW ROYALTY THEATRE 119 



it may be hoped that it will help to 
reinstate Oerman in the legitimate 
place from which it has been driven 
of late years, as was so strikingly 



brought out in the debate at the 
last annual meeting of the Associa- 
tion, reported in our last issue 
(p. 68 and foil.). 



THE GERMAN PLAYS AT THE NEW ROYALTY 
THEATRE. 



Tex first of the three matinie perform- 
anoes of Leesmg's ' Minna von Bamhebn ' 
WIS giyen on Saturday, May 2, before a 
large and most appreciative andienoe. 

After a wonderful career of nearly a 
oentnry and a half, the famous comedy has 
lost little of its effeotiyeness. The tech- 
nique of the theatre has altered consider- 
ably in the meantime, but still, with all 
due respect for the self-depredator, Lessing, 
and our modem literary detectives, Minna 
has the grip of the true play, without which 
it would long ago have been relegated to 
that capadous and much-exploited apart- 
ment—the literary lumber-room. 

The performance was fresh and bright 
throughout, and the general level of the 
acting high. Herr Andresen gave us, as 
might have been expected, a vigorous and 



picturesque Werner, Fraulein Oademann 
a Minna whose high spirits and benevolent 
deceptions were alike full of grace and 
charm. The part of Tellheim was ade- 
quately rendered by Herr Schiefer, even if 
the Migor was perhaps made in the earlier 
parts somewhat unnecessarily passive and 
colourless, while the representatives of the 
popular parts of Just and Franziska, and 
of the ubiquitous Wirt, duly contributed 
to the enlivenment of the whole. 

Many of those who eigoyed this excel- 
lent performance will, we are sure, hope 
that Herr Andresen may be so far en- 
couraged by the present virit as to see Ids 
way to add yet another to those winter 
seasons which have been so much appred- 
ated in the past. 

H. G. A. 



REVIEWS. 



TK$ Practice qf Instruction. A Manual 
of Method, General and Spedal. Edited 
WJ. W.Adaxson, B.A. Pp.xxi+512. 
ifational Sodety's Depontory. 4s. 6d. 
net. 

We do not propose to devote a long 
review to this book, for the simple reason 
that we may assume that it is already in 
every teacher's reference library. It is a 
book which it is eminently pleasant to 
read. The first part (Generat Method 
and Curriculum) is by the editor, who 
holds the Ohair of Education at King's 
College, London. He has also contributed 
the section on the Teaching of the Mother- 
Tongue. In both we admire his power of 
ludd expodtion. The sections on Latin 
and Greek and on Modem Languages 
natnraUy claim our special attention. 
The former is by Dr. Bouse and Mr. 
W. H. 8. Jones. It is altogether refiraah- 



ing and cheering. If this is going to be 
the new teaching of clasdcs, then let us 
do all we can to further it. The sometime 
secretary of our Association, Mr. Mansfield 
Poole, gives a helpful account of the 
Reform method, with many useful hints 
that result from his condderable experience 
as a teacher. The model examination 
papers which he appends are also likely to 
be found usefiiL If any teachers have not 
yet seen this book, they should beg, borrow, 
or steal it at once. 

The Essays of Francis Bacon, Edited 
with Introduction and Notes by Mart 
A. Scott. Ph.D. New York: Charles 
Scribner's Sons, 1908. Introduction, 
etc, pp. di. T^xt pp. 298. Price 
11*25 net 

This book is printed in large type on 
good paper; the notes, which are ludd, 
■oholurly, and adequate, are on the same 



120 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



pages as the text, and the Yolome, though 
rather heary to hold, is well bound and 
attractiye. The editor's task has evidentlj 
been done with eigoyment, and in con- 
sequence there are a freshness and ' gusto ' 
about the work which are often wanting 
in annotated editions. Dr. Scott proves 
that she has read widely and thoughtfully, 
and she ' uses ' her studies ' to weigh and 
consider.' Occasionally her notes seem 
superfluous — e.g.., there is no need to 
explain that 'wrought' means 'worked,' 
or to drag in a reference to the first 
telegram (' Of Studies,' Note 7), and there 
are many similar explanations of obso- 
lescent words which might be omitted. 
Still, the text is not overloaded with 
notes, and the claim made to conciseness 
of expression and brevity is justified. The 
references to other writers, classical and 
English, and the elucidations of historical 
and other allusions are helpful and die- 
criminating. The introduction is interest- 
ing, and the conclusions drawn are cautious 
and well balanced, though not always 
final. For instance, Dr. Scott's opinion 
with regard to such essays as those ' Of 
Love ' and ' Of Marriage and Single life ' 
is not convincing, and while it is easy to 
understand her enthusiasm for the essay 
'Of Gardens,' it is not equally easy to 
agree with the assertion that Bacon's 
Essays, ' one of the most learned works in 
English, is so easy to read and understand.' 
Nor will everybody acquiesce in the bold 
statement that 'his Essays bear the 
strongest possible testimony to the essential 
soundness of Bacon's moral character. A 
good man only could have written them.' 
Yet she supports both views with argu- 
ments whidi some readers, at any rate, 
will accept as adequate. 

On the whole, this edition deserves to 
take its place beside those of Abbott and 
of Storr and Gibson ; it fulfils its function 
satisfactorily, and students will doubtless 
be grateful for the help it affords them. 
The most serious defect is the omission of 
a definite list of the essays contained in 
the earlier editions, and there are also 
some slips in composition and style as 



deplorable as, happUy, they are rare 
(<^^., Preface, p. ix. 'It is the piecdng 
intellect of Bacon seeing clear and think- 
ing straight, and shooting its arrow of 
expression right into the bull's eye ;' and 
Introduction, p. xvii, 'Sir Nicholas 
Bacon, 2d.'). 

Sidney's Apologia for Podrie. Edited witii 
introduction, notes, and index by 
J. Churton Collins, Professor of Eng- 
lish Literature in the University of 
Birmingham. Clarendon Press. Intro- 
duction. Pp. xxviiL Text, Notes, and 
Index, pp. 111. Price 2s. 6d. 

We must confess to some disappoint- 
ment in Professor Churton Collins's treat- 
ment of a fascinating subject. His 
introduction, in so far as it deals with 
the Apologie itself, is too brief, and 
leaves practically untouched many prob- 
lems which demand ftdler treatment. 
The comparison with contemporary critics 
is quite inadequate, yet such comparison 
is surely necessary in an edition designed 
for 'young students'; the influence of 
Plato and of Aristotle ought to be ex- 
amined in much greater detail, and rofer- 
ence should be made to the controversies 
about the use of rime, of the vernacular 
and concerning the constitution of poetzy. 
The summary of the Apologie on pp. xxv- 
xxvii is unsatisfactory, and is written in 
a style that is almost childish in expres- 
sion. ' He then reviews.' ' He goes on 
next,' 'Next he proceeds' — these hooks 
and tags show some poverty of invention. 
The text itself is divided into sections by 
what Professor Collins caUs a 'running 
analysis,' which it would have been wiser 
to relegate to the notes, as it distracts the 
attention of the reader. The notes them- 
selves are the best part of the editorial 
matter ; they explain whatever is difficult, 
and do not call undue attention to them- 
selves or their author. Professor Collins 
has earned our gratitude by publishing a 
cheap edition of the first great critical 
work in English, and by stating clearly 
that 'a better introduction to the study 
of poetry could scarcely be conceived.' but 
except in price, we do not think his edition 



REVIEWS 



121 



in any way supersedes the older one of 
Mr. Sbuckbui^h. 

R J. Uoyd, Northern English, Pp. zi+ 
127. Tenbner. 1908. Price M. 8.20. 
This work by Dr. Lloyd, the dis- 
tingnished phonetician whose untimely 
death was a cause of grief to many, was 
first issued in 1899. It was at once 
reoognized as an interesting piece of work, 
although his hope that Northern English 
should be recognized as a standard was 
not likely to be fulfilled, and his belief in 
its superiority over Southern English was 
not shared by many Elnglish phoneti- 
dans. The book has exercised influence in 
the direction of making some foreigners, 
especially Germans, acquire Northern 
Snglish sounds, which had to be unlearnt 
when they arrived in Southern England. 
This, the second edition, contains some 
yalnable footnotes by Professor Yietor, and 
by Mrs. £. L. Jones, Dr. Lloyd's daughter. 

0ff%lvie*8 Smaller English Dictumary, In 
476 three-column pages. Blackie. Is. 
net 

This is not a new book, and requires no 
commendation from us ; but the reduction 
in price is so considerable that it deserves 
mention. The type is quite clear, and 
the cloth binding appears to be strong 
enough for all practical purposes. 

Four additions have lately been made to 
the Oxford Modem French Series, edited 
by LioN Delbos, M.A., and intended for 
use in the higher forms of schools, 
viz. : De Vigny*s Servitude et Orcmdeur 
MUUaires, edited by 0. L. Fbbbman, 
M.A., price Ss. ; Xavier Marmier's Les 
Fianeis du SpUzberg, edited by A. A. 
Hentsch, Ph.D., price 3s. ; Lieutenant 
Bene Beliefs Joumai d*un Voyage aux 
Mers Polaires, with map, edited by H. J. 
Ohattob, M.A., price 2s. 6d. ; De Sis- 
mondi's Marignan: ConquHe et Perte du 
Milanais, edited by A. Wilson-Grekn, 
M.A., price 2s. lliese volumes are well 
up to the standard of their predecessors. 
They contain, in addition to the text, an 
acoount of the writer and his principal 
works. The notes have, very wisely, been 



chiefly confined to the explanation of his- 
torical and other allusions, and do not 
touch unnecessarily upon grammatical 
points. 

In the Oxford Higher French Series, 
which is suitable for the general reader, 
as well as for advanced pupils and Uni- 
versity students, two new volumes have 
also been published: Balzac's Euginie 
Orandet, edited by H. £. Bskthon, M. A., 
and Sainte - Beuve's Portraits Litt&aires 
(Molidre, Comeille, Eacine), edited by 
D. L. Savory, M.A. These books are 
issued in a very attractive form; they 
contain a portrait of the writer, together 
with a biography and a more particular 
account of the woik in question. The 
notes are judiciously compiled, and con- 
siderably enhance the value of the volumes. 

Lamartine: Premieres MMitations Poi- 

tiques: A, de Vigny : Poesies Chaisies, 

Edited by Professor A. T. Baker. Pp. 40 

and 48. Blackio. 4d. each. 

We have particular pleasure in drawing 

attention to these recent additions to 

Blackio's Little French Classics, because 

the editorial work is of a much higher 

class than usual, rising above the general 

level of respectability by a power of literary 

feeling and SBsthetic discrimination which 

is all the more welcome because it is rare. 

We thank Professor Baker for giving us 

these well-considered selections from 

Lamartine and Vigny. 

Dumas* Avenlure d'Artagnan en Angle- 
terre. Edited by Kxnnbth Auoh- 
MAUTY, M.A. Blackie. Pp. 48. 4d. 
The series of 'Little Glassies' is too 
well known to need description. The 
present volume is an extract from * Twenty 
Years After.' It contains twenty-eight 
pages of text, six of notes, and eight of 
questions, the last being in small type. 
The text itself requires no comment. 
The introduction by Mr. Auchmuty puts 
the reader in a position to take up the tale 
where the French text opens. The notes 
are concise and to the point. One or two 
details suggest remarks. We have a note 
on the pronunciation of *Soitf The 
next note but one happens to be on §oit 



122 



MODEEN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



. . . mrit ... It might be well to 
mention in the fint of these two notes that 
the pronnndstion given applies to the 
word in that pertioalur nse only (exoept 
in the esse of ordinary liaisons). 

'AtneUe {<a89edUo=U>8et), ''situation " 
— i^.f "condition "; the word also means 
'*a plate/*' Is not asnetUt 'situation,' 
fh>m aaridere, and ostMtte, 'plate/ from 
asmdare t Bnt authorities differ on this. 
La eonngne, add, perhaps, 'oloak-room' 
to the other meanings given. Parlait du 
gefum, ' coold posh him with his knee '; 
rather, " conminnioate with him by a tonch 
of his knee. " Apropos of this, on page 81, 
line 16, there is un aeeande ocmp, one of the 
few misprints that we have noticed. 
There is another on page 46 — eketif. 

The Questionnaire deals with the sub- 
ject-matter of the text — grammatical 
points, references in the notes, etc. We 
confess we should have liked to see the 
periphrastic interrogatives introduced. 
We have not noticed one example of them. 
Qu*yJU Napoleonf Qu'en/ait-onr Qu'est^ 
ahrsf QvCeniend'Cn par *V mouUUet 
strike the ear unpleasantly. We have two 
questions, Qui Hail le Mazarxnt Que 
Mvez-voua de Masarinf apropos respeo- 
tively of le Mazarin and Mazann in the 
text. The notes do not touch on the 
point The pupils would certainly be 
puszled. Many of the questions involve 
some instruction (based on the text) in 
word-formation, doublets, derivation, etc. 

The above criticisms are on details only, 
and the book as a whole takes its place 
worthily in the series. 

Miehelet: Jeaniu d^Are, Public et an- 
not^ en collaboration avec K. Kuhk 
par S. ChabiJtt. Pp. 96 and 44. 
Teubner. M. 1.20. 

This is an interesting contribution to 
the Collection Teubner, which is under 
the general editorship of F. Dorr, H. P. 
Junker, and M. Walter. That suffices to 
indicate that the edition is quite on 
Reform lines. One volume contains the 
text, printed in good clear type, a repro- 
duction of Ohapu's ' Jeanne d'Arc ' from 
the Luxembourg, a plan of Orleans, with 



special reference to the siege of 1429, and 
a map of the North of France. The notes^ 
in a separate booklet, contain : (1) Ana]^ 
de Jeanne d^Are. (2) La Frsaoo et 
FAngleterre de 1066 k 1429. (8) Lbs 
Armte et la Guerre. (4) La NoUesse ct 
l']gglise an 16* Si&de. (6) Le BAle ds 
Jeanne d'Aic (6) Jeanne d'Arc dans la 
Litttetnre historique ; La Jeamme d^Are 
de Michelet (7) Biographic de Miehelet. 
In addition, there is a summary of gnm- 
matical points worthy of notice ; a list of 
words occurring in the text, and Hawrified 
under the headings : (a) La Bdigion ; 
(() QuaUt^, Yertus, IMfauts ; (e) Pays, 
Institutions ; {d) La Ouene ; (s) Lss 
Tribunanx. Finally, there are notei eay 
plioaiime^ which seem to give all that is 
essential. The edition as a whole is a 
veiy careful piece of work, which we are 
happy to commend to the notioe of 
English teachers. 

E, Morax: La Frinoeue FeuiUe-Morie. 

Edited by A. P. Guiton. Pp. 40. 

Blaokie. 4d. 

A well- written short story, with touches 
of humour and of pathos. The notes are 
generally good, the English renderin^i 
quite idiomatic A ptestionnaire is also 
given. There are some ten questions on 
the subject-matter and the grammar to 
each page. 

De Maislre, Le L/preux de la OiUd^AoeU. 

Edited by Maubios Labbsss. Pp. 48. 

Blaokie, 1908. Price 4d. 

The editor supplies a short note on 
Xavier De Maistre's life and works, notes, 
and a set of questions on the subject- 
matter of the text and on some points of 
granmiar. The notes are not free from 
misprints {chateau on p. 80, je /era on 
p. 81, eouriens for aouviens on p. 87); 
othenrise they are generally satis^tory. 

Deelys, Le Zouave and La MonJtre de 

Gertrude, Edited by Louis A. Babbb. 

Pp. 112. Blackie, 1907. Price 8d. 

Two excellent stories, of moderate 

difficulty. The text is well printed, in 

dear type. The notes are brief and to 

the point; there is also a 'phrase-list'; 

it is not dear why this was not induded 



REVIEWS 



123 



in the notes. ThenthereiBagti«i<ioftnatr«, 
and a good Frenoh-EngliBh yooabalaiy 
conoliides the book. 

Gtorge Samd, La Mare au DiahU. Edited 

by W. O. Hartoo. Pp. xiv+102. 

Monray. 1907. Prioe Is. 6d. 

This ▼olmne opens a new series, 

Mwrray*» French Texts, and leaves a 

faTonrable impression. The binding is 

in good taste, the printing is exoellent, 

and the proof has been well read. The 

editor supplies a brief note on O. Sand, 

there are explanatory footnotes to the 

text, and some questions and exercises at 

the end of the book. 

ifrs. J. G. Frasser, Le ChaUt F&reind, 
Pp. 26. Bkckie, 1908. Prioe 4d. 
This is a very pointless little play, 
which will hardly bear comparison with 
some others in tiie same series. In the 
first act some rather yolgar people are at 
dinner; the fiither announces he has taken 
a house in the country for the summer. 
In the second act they have arrived there, 
find that country life has disadvantages, 
and decide to return to town. Such 
humour as there is is of a would-be 
fiutdcalkind. 

Fretteh Song and Vene for Chiidreti, 
Edited by Hslxn Tbb&t. Illustra- 
tions by P. Tempsstini. Longmans. 
Pp. 125. Prioe Is. 6d. 
This is a graduated collection of verse, 
beginning with Sava-vous planter dee 
diauxf and ending with Malherbe's 
Faraphraee du Paaume cent quaranU- 
cimquihM, To the first ten songs the air 
is added in staff notation. Among these 
are some well-known favourites (though 
we ndss many old friends, such as La 
Falieee, Au Clair de la Lune, Ma Nor- 
mandie, etc.), but the simpler verse is 
chiefly by modem writers. Further on 
La Fontaine, Bdranger, Delavigne, Hugo 
and Halherbe are represented. The book 
is attractively illustrated. 

La DeuxQme Annie de Franaite, By 
F. B. KiBKMAif, B.A., with the assist- 
ance of 0. M. Oa&nibr and W. H. B. 
LncH, ILA. Pp. 266. Black. Price 
2s. 6d. 
This is a sequel to La Premiire AmUe^ 

by the same author, and is written upon 



the same lines. The text contains an 
account of an English boy's holiday in 
Normandy and Brittany, as well as selec- 
tions dealing with the history of Franoe. 
Verse, proverbs, fables, etc, are also 
interspersed throughout the book, which 
is well printed and delightftdly illustrated, 
largely from photographs. As the book is 
likely to be used by those who have 
already worked through the Premih'e 
AwUe, there is no need to give any 
account of its method. It is sufficient to 
say that the same evident care has been 
bestowed upon it, and that it has been 
produced in a style in no way inferior to 
its predecessor. 

Tnrie Semaines en France, By L. Ohou- 
viLLi. Edited by D.L.SAVOBT. With 
Questions for Conversation and Gram- 
matical Exerdses by Miss F. M. S. 
Batohslor. 127 pp. Oxford : Gluen- 
don Press. 1908. Price 2s. 

Mr. Chouville*s text is capital ; it gives 
us a brisk and animated description of a 
visit to Brittany and Normandy, and is 
illustrated by photographs. The gram- 
matical exercises are excellent; Biin 
Batchelor is favourably known for her 
conscientious and able work. 

C. Oury et 0, Boemer^ HieUdre de la 

LUUratwre Frantaiae, Pp. xii-f887. 

Teubner, 1908. Price 6s. 

This history of French literature is a 

careful piece of work, and makes a good 

book of reference for ordinary purpoaea. 

It would also form a convenient companion 

for a course of lectures. The rdtunUe of 

epics, dramas, etc., are particularly useftil. 

The notieee Mbliographiquee at the end of 

the book are also a noteworthy feature. 

A Short French Orammar, By Otto 
SixPMANif. Pp. viiL + 182. Mamnillan. 
Prioe 2s. 6d. 

Mr. Siepmann has done an excellent 
piece of work by compiling, mainly from 
his own observations, a French Qrammar 
which is likely to find a place alongside of 
other well-known works on similar linea 
which are fiuniliar to the readers of 

MODBRH LaHOUAOI TMAGHIlfO. 



124 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Mr. Siepmann has some interesting 
remarks on the reasons which have led 
him to write his book in English rather 
than in French — reasons which will be 
readily appreciated by those who have 
experience of the type of teaching which 
Mr. Siepmann has been called upon to 
give. At the same time, we would ask 
Mr. Siepmann to gire in future editions 
of his books the French equivalents of the 
parts of speech, names of tenses, gram- 
matical terms, etc We think this small 
concession would be welcomed by many 
practical teachers. 

A us der prcuns/Ur die jiraxis is the out- 
standing feature of the book. Notes for 
dass-work and collection of difficulties 
met with in olass-work form its basis to a 
large extent. This is clear in the chapters 
on the government of verbs, and on the 
prepositions, of which the treatment is 
very thorough. 

To the grammar proper the author adds 
a valuable chapter on versification, a sub- 
ject which, though admirably treated in 
one or two standard editions of French 
texts, has not always received sufficient 
attention at the hands of grammarians, 
and, we might add, examiners. The 
chapter dealing with derivation also 
deserves a word of praise. 

We dq not quite understand the principle 
npon which the list of idiomatic expres- 
sions (p. 140) has been compiled. In 
some cases it contains phrases the like of 
which have already been noted in the use 
of prepositions, and in another list on 
page 115. We should like Mr. Siepmann 
to add to the utility of his book by giving 
ampler treatment to this heading, ' Idio- 
matic Expressions.' He gives us avoir 
aoif^ faim^ but omits avoir honU, envie ; 
proTumctr un discoura^ but not /aire une 
eon/irence; de Urns les cdUs^ but not du 
edU de, etc A little expansion in this 
matter would be an improvement which 
could easily be effected. 

Mr. Siepmann's book is very well 
adapted for use in the middle and higher 
forms of public secondary schools, and 
deserves much commendation. 



EuentiaU <tf French Orammar, By H. 
WiLSHiRE. Pp. viii-f88. Bell, 1908. 
Price Is. 6d. 

This is intended to be an ' Ezerdse book 
for Junior Glasses.* We cannot oommend 
it, for it is old-fashioned and dolL We 
had hoped that the day had passed when 
books for teaching French contained such 
sentences as: *Yon are without the 
walking-stick. Thou art without the 
water,* which no sane person would ever 
utter in real life We add a few more for 
the delectation of our readei^: 'Thou 
hadst in the house a parcel, a handkerchief 
and a walking-stick. The Chinese women 
and the Japanese girls are here. He is a 
clever widower. The lilies of the garden 
are in the boats of the ships. The little 
dumb girl is as unhappy as the little 
blind boy in the dark and narrow street, 
but she is more patient, and she is vezy 
pious. I was wishing that he might 
embellish his garden. Look at those two 
boys ; that one is pinching his sister, this 
one is blamed by his mother.' 

F. TJumoin, French Idiomatic Esqirenums. 
Pp. viii + 161. Hachettc Price 2s. 6d. 
net 

This is an excellent collection of gaUi- 
cismeSf proverbea, et expressions difidles, 
wisely introduced in a connected narrative, 
with ample footnotes. It should prove 
very useful for the purpose of extending 
the learner's vocabulary. It is obviously 
not intended for beginners, but for the 
upper forms of our schools and for 
University students it is very suitable. 
The book is clearly and carefiilly printed. 

Teacher* s Handbook to Mackay and OurUs's 
First and Second French Books. Pp. 102. 
Whittaker. Is. net. 

The First and Second French Books by 
Messrs. Mackay and Curtis are well known 
as useful and well-compiled introductions 
to French. The handbook now issued 
contains the notes originally included in 
the First French Book, and fresh notes on 
the Second Book by Mr. Mackay. It is 
businesslike and helpful. 



REVIEWS 



125 



Ghdhe: Egmoni ; Schiller: KabdU und 
LUbe. Znm Schnlgebrauch and Selbst- 
nnterrioht heranBgegeben von Dr. Q. 
Frick. Pp. 112 and 125. Teubner. 
60 Pf. and 70 Pf. respectively. 

These are YolmnesinTenbner's Deutsche 
St^ulauagaJben^ under the general editor- 
ship of Dir. Dr. H. Gaudig and Dr. 
O. Frick. The text is printed in a dear 
modem type, with footnotes, which explain 
historical and other aUnsions and obsolete 
or rare words and phrases. In an appendix 
are given the chief dates of the anther's 
life, and various points of literary interest 
in connexion with the play. These 
editions should prove welcome to teachers 
who desire a good text at a low price. 

Lessing : SeleeUd Fables. Edited by Oarl 
Heath. Pp. 46. Blaokie. 6d. 

A convenient selection of these fables, 
the rather elaborate thought and langusge 
of which does not render them suitable 
for young beginners, but makes them 
attractive reading for older students. 
The notes are adequate. There are two 
misprints on the first page of the text, 
but not many after that. Verrdliech, in 
the note on p. 12, 1. 7, should be verrd- 
ieriach ; and vcfiJUi was not originally the 
imperative, as the note on p. IS, 1. 15, 



desirable in the case of a book for junior 
cli 



A Oerman Beader and Themebook. By 
Calvin Thomas and W. A. Hsrvst. 
Pp. ix + 688. Bell, 1907. Price 4s. 6d. 

This reader is of American origin, where 
apparently it first appeared in 1901, and 
is 'primarily intended for the users of 
Thomas's Practical German Oranmiar.* 
It contains a varied assortment of passages, 
not printed in the newest spelling, as 
thun, ffiebt, etc., occur frequently. Among 
the authors represented are Orimm, 
Andersen, Baumbaoh, Seidel, Fulda, 
Heine, Goethe, Schiller, Uhland. On 
the whole the selection is judicious. The 
text takes up 164 pages, and is followed 
by 70 pages of notes, 60 pages of questions 
and ' themes ' (passages for retranslation), 
and a full vocabulary. The main draw- 
backs to the book are its bulkineas and 
its price, which is higher than seems 



DetUeches Leselmch/ur Lehrerinnenaemina' 
rien. Von Dr. I. Hetdtmank und 
E. Kellsb. Zweiter Teil : Prosa aus 
Religion, Wissenschaft und Eunst; 
Erlasse, Beden, Briefe. Pp. 882. 
Teubner. M. 8.20. 

We have looked through this book very 
carefully, and can recommend it as an 
exceptionally good collection of standard 
German prose. Though it may be specially 
suitable for the German training college, 
this reader might be adopted in any class 
of advanced students of German. The 
book is very well got up. 

Der nette Leilfadet^ By L. M. de la 
MoTTE TiscHBROOK. John Murray. 
Y^. 126. Price 2s. 6d. 

In thirty- two lessons this book advances 
from the alphabet to an extract on IHt 
Schlaeht bei Leipzig, by Amdt. 'One 
term sufficed, ' we are told in the Pre&ce, 
'to put a class of the average age of 
thirteen through the first twenty-five 
lessons, and they were able to read a fairly 
difficult author at the end of it.' * Bead ' 
and 'fairly difficult' are not defined. 
' It is easy enough for those who have no 
previous linguistic training, progressive 
enough to satisfy those who wish to get on 
rapi^y, and of sufficiently wide range in its 
choice of subjects not to bore the educated 
and grown-up reader. ' Illustrative of this 
we may quote the heading to Lesson II. on 
p. 8 : ' Lehndel : Erweiterung und Befes- 
tigung des Wortschatzes. Hor- und 
Sprechiibungen. Starkung des Yermo- 
gens, langere Worter und Satze richtig 
durch das Ohr aufzufassen. Verstandnis 
der Frageworter was fur ein (eine) f wo f ' 
The reader must judge for himself for 
which of the classes of pupil just referred 
to this lesson-heading is intended. The 
'Wortschats' is based on HolzePs 
'Spring.' The 'Hor- und Sprechiibun- 
gen ' of the first lesson contain ' Forma- 
tion of simple vowels, a, e, i, o, u.' 'A 
few phonetic signs have been inserted for 
the use of those who use a sound'ohart' 
Tour reviewer has found five whole words 



126 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



in phonetic transcription, and thirteen 
phonetic eigne, two of which he cannot 
remember haying previonily seen. 

Up to Lesson IX. we are still with 
Hdlzel in springtime ; in Lesson X., on 
p. 25, we find onrselTes with Napoleon at 
Moscow in winter. (The grown-nps are 
having a torn now.) 'Napoleon er- 
kannte das (d. h. dass Soldaten, die ihre 
Gewehre weggeworfen batten, nicht mehr 
kriegstdchtig waren), and wollte ehe er 
weitere Schritte tat, inMoskaa Uberwintem 
and die verlorene Mannsrocht wieder 
herstellen.' The exorclBe takes H5lzel 
and Napoleon together : * The grand- 
father has always been diligent and thrifty. 
The soldiers had not always foand bread 
enough. ' Then we pat into the plnral 
and the perfect tense: Der Hahn krliht 
dreimal. Wo bist du f 1st er krank V 
(Is ' er ' the grandfather, or Napoleon, or 
Der Hahn, or a Frederick the Great's 'Er' 
of address I) 

Lessons I. to IV. are in roman type, 
v. to XXI. in German, and the rest of the 
lessons are some in roman, some in Ger- 
man. Lessons XVI. and XVII. are in a 
different German foant from the rest, and 
Lesson XXXI. in small roman italic 
This is ' in order to enable the student to 
recognize old acquaintances in a new 
dress.' 

German-EngliBh vocabularies are given 
to the separate lessons. There is no 
general vocabulary ; nor is there any 
index to enable the student to refer to the 
sections on grammar that are given in the 
lessons. 

A few details are worth reference : 
'"Wein" (rhymes with "vine"), but 
Schwester . . . zwei . . . Quelle ' is not a 
very explicit statement as to the pro- 
nunciation of the w and u in the last 
three. The examples of German hand- 
writing are too small to be of good service 
to a beginner. The other form for p 
might, perhaps, be added. ' Double 88 
(i.s., in roman type) occurs only between 
two short vowels.' It is still used for f 
to an extent which requires the addition 
of some qualification to this statement. 



' Use the final s in writing German soript 
at the end of a syllable.' What about 
Jtnof«pe, ef^cn, Jtaf4en? Sekiueke is 
'snaU' rather than 'slug.' For(p. I7)der 
MtmaU, des M<maiu, read dot Manai, d» 
Monat(e)8. Page 4 : for Hne Si^otte read 
ein. Page 89 : Siege erkdmpfm, to fq^ 
for vielorieet is rather remporter des 
vieUriree. Psge 48: Er eoU doe Buek 
'ver/aeet* haben. edited, rather writtm 
oTie the author of. Page 68 : ^ 2esre On 
jeden Sehmaue, read leerf ; heiTgen prob- 
ably better for this book than heiigem^ 
though, as Dr. Breul has shown, the 
texts differ between these two and heiiigen. 
All have, however, t»'s Meer, Page 67: 
X weniger y, x plus y ; why no mention 
of X minus y f Page 67 : Among exprea- 
sions of time there is no mention of the 
form drei Vierlel ttuf zehn, drei Viertd 
zehn^ or in figures } 10. Page 68 : die 
SchiU* echen (eic) wants closing up. Page 
90 : ' The English p at the beginning of a 
word becomes German p/,' is not a very 
happy method of expressing the idea. 
Page 126 : ' " Deijenige " and " deraelbe " 
are declined, like the definite article, with 
an adjective,' requires corrected punctua- 
tion. Pages 113 to 121: Several verbs 
are marked in this verb list as being con- 
jugated with eein only, which can, accord- 
ing to sense, be conjugated with JuU>en or 
sein— «.^., schwimmen, reiten, laufen, 
fliegen, fliessen. Page 89, line 7 : (or die 
beide read die beiden, 

A few of the English sentences have a 
peculiar ring : ' Herr Wanderer, have yom 
lost your wayf 'If these forms differ 
not,' ' Who has made the melody to the 
"Lorelei"!' 

We do not feel that the general style 
of the book commends itself to us, and 
though much of the grammar is dearly 
and concisely put, the general impression 
left [on us is one of a certain lack of co- 
herence in design. 

French Readinge in Science, Bv Ds Y. 

Paykn-Paynb. Blackie. Pp. vii+ 

230. Price 8s. 6d. 

The book has been prepared in view of 
the present requirements of the University 



REVIEWS 



127 



of London that candidates for a degree in 
Soienoe should be able to translate a por- 
tion of a French or of a German scientific 
work. Mr. Payen-Payne humbly calls it 
'this small book.' Thoogh its actual 
aise is moderate, there is remarkably little 
on any page of what a French printer 
oalls Name The work of collecting the 
extracts must have been prodigious, and 
they form a wonderfully interesting set 
for the ordinary scientific reader, whether 
he is preparing for a degree examination 
or not It is scarcely conceivable that any 
candidate who has worked through the 
book could £ul in this particular section 
of his examination. They vary in standard 
from some passages that are fairly diffi- 
onlt, to others that famrmillefU with the 
poiest technical terminology. They cover 
most of the existing sciences, and include, 
among recent matters, Lumito's auto- 
ohrome plates, the Comte de la Yaulz's 
air-ship, motor-buses, radio-activity, and 
the ever-ancient, ever-recent sea-serpent. 
Among other matters we have Chemistry, 
Physics, Physical Chemistry, Anatomy, 
Physiology, Botany, Conchology, Astro« 
nomy. Zoology, Photography, etc. Con- 
sidering the difficulty of editing a text- 
book of this character, we must congratu- 
late the author on the remarkable absence 
of typographical errors. We have noted 
in the text : page 64, line 6 from below, 
pm9^[ue, which should, wo think, be puis 
qiu ; page 140, line 8, for second read 
sseonde; page 142, line 19, for d chaine 
read aehaine='Esig. aohene, a regular 
botanical term ; page 142, last line, for 
sommiUs read sommiUs, 

The notes strike us as leas satisfactory. 
In general, it is doubtftd whether, in 
annotating such extracts as these, it is of 
value to enter into details of such matters 
as — Chemical formulae of bodies referred 
to, anatomical or zoological descriptions 
beyond what appear in the text, defini- 
tions of scientific terminology, etc. Our 
author has done so with varying success. 
But if it is to be done at aU, it must be 
done thoroughly. To take an instance at 
haxard, for page 168 we have notes on la 



scUroHqw, la charo'tde, ehandromae&lds, la 
myosins; while prdtdqtis, eollagine, 
nweotde, serum-globuline, have no notes. 
In a work of this standard notes on such 
matters as — The order of words in 
cmssi pise-t-U, on the difference between 
motirfU and sst mort^ du f«8<e= besides, 
dizains =sBhoiQt ten, ouote = cotton-wool, 
etc., seem out of place. In many places 
it would be better to give the ICngliffh 
equivalent of the French scientific term, 
and leave the student to hunt up its 
meaning elsewhere, instead of giving a 
definition without the English technical 
term; s.g., trepanation, dicotylidon are 
defined, but the equivalent English terms 
are not given. If the student knows the 
English equivalents, ho will not want the 
definition. Moreover, such a definition of 
trepanning, or trephining, as ' a surgical 
operation for relieving the brain of pres- 
sure or irritation,' is at best vague. Similar 
remarks might be made on many notes. 

It was, perhaps, almost inevitable that 
some errors should creep in, or remain 
undetected in notes on such a variety of 
sciences. But we confess that the number 
of such errors rather surprises us. We 
proceed to note some of these. Page 6 : 
poucs = 'inch,' but it should be noted 
that the old French poucs was not the 
same as our ' inch.' Page 20 : disactiva- 
tiion, not * disintegration,' but *loes of 
activity.' It is, in foct, called dissipation 
ds Vactivit^ du gaz three lines below. 
Page 42 : rochet, in clockwork ' ratchet,' 
or ' click,' rather than as given in note. 
Page 44 : tous Us mohiles du rouage, de la 
eadraturs st du remontoir, * all the motive 
power of wheel work or winders'; why 
skip oadrahiref rather, *all the moving 
parts of the train, dial movement and 
winding action.' Same page, next note : 
laiion =3 'brass wire' — no, 'brass'; this 
is clear frt>m the two preceding lines, 
besides being the ordinary meaning of 
laiton. Page 46: remontoir d bcuculs: 
why dodge heucule by ' patent winder 'f 
rather, ' ratchet keyless winder.' Same 
page: cuvettes; the bcdls of a bearing 
do not run in 'domes,' bat in 'cups.' 



128 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



y%ge 87: irmils, 'wheels and axles' — 
i.«., pnllejB, here probably 'winches,' 
or * capstans/ another meaning of the 
word which certainly suits the context 
better, la turfaee cUaire, ' the surface of 
the wings or sails '; rather, ' their wing- 
surface," as it refers to the blades 
of the screw of the airship. eiUre- 
Urises transverscUes, 'transversal cross- 
pieces'; better, 'transverse stmts.' Page 
94 : boisseau, in ' le boisaeau doit Hre 
refweni. H/atU prendre le flambeau d la 
main,' The exact equivalent in English 
measure of the French bushel is beside 
the point. A reference to Matt. v. 15 
would be more apropos. laminaffe=: 
'rolling.' No; the laminage of gold 
into gold-leaf is effected by 'beating.' 
Page 98 : eymeSf ' " cyme," a term applied 
to any definite form of inflorescence.' 
Better 'any form of "definite" inflor- 
escence ' and explain meaning of ' definite. ' 
Page 108 : onguicuUSf ' unguiculata ' 
should be 'ungulata.' Page 111: venin 
du mambOf 'the poison of puff-adders '; 
the full phrase in the text is venin du 
mamba noir, ' poison of the black mamba ' 
(or puff-adder) ; this is not pointless, as 
» there are black mambas and green mambas. 
In Natal they are generally spoken of 
as mambas, not puff-adders. Page 122 : 
naticolde^ ' " naticoid " — 1.<;., of the genus 
yiatiea, of the family of the Naticids.' 
No; 'naticoid' means 'natica-shaped.' 
The escargot Belix aperta is in question. 
The Helicidffi and Naticids belong to totally 
distinct orders. But the Htlix aperta has 
a less markedly spiral shell, in which 
respect it approaches somewhat to the 
shape of the shell of Natica. Page 181 : 
the formula of sulphindigotic acid requires 
an O, instead of O4 ; and that of isatine 
a Og instead of C^ Page 188 : Tanin : 
' tannin gives dark-coloured precipitates 
with ferric salts. By this action common 
ink is made.' Where is the ink coming 
fix)m if we get a precipitate f Compare 
Bemthsen, ' Organische Chemie,' p. 428 : 
' Die wasserige Losung (d.h. des Tannins) 
wird durch Eisenchlorid dunkelblau 
gelarbt.' There is your ink. We have 



checked the reaction by actual test before 
writing this. Page 224: la paupiirt 
nyditanUf ' the nictitating " membrane " 
• . . characteristic of birds. . . .' In 
the text it is referred to as a normal thing 
in dogs. The zoologists recognize it as a 
typical structure in the adult vertebrate, 
though reduced in man to a vestigial fold. 
Page 157 : the formula of brucine requires 
On instead of 0^ Page 161 : under 
vapeurs HhiT4eB delete comma between 
'chemically' and 'pure.' Page 167: 
d* ttnvXawnner les graisses, ' to make fatty 
substances into emulsions ' ; rather, ' to 
emulsify the fats,' the regular phrase in 
physiology. Page 168: Ciphalopodsa. 
'Their ventral surfSetce is an enormously 
developed muscular foot, provided witii 
tentacles and suckers.' Not very dear. 
Perhaps better : * The " arms " which sur- 
round the mouth are modifications of the 
moUuscan "foot"' They are not enoi^ 
mously developed in all the Cephalopoda. 
Page 187 : treuil d vapeur, ' steam wheel 
and axle'; better, 'steam winch' or 
'donkey engine.' Page 10: roaeyghte 
privi en partie de aon ilaslieitS^^xjgen. in 
the nascent state. No ; translate literally. 
It is wrong to read later theories and 
phraseology into Berthollet's words. 
Moreover, it is clear from the whole piece 
descriptive of Berthollet's theory that 
' nascent state ' does not suit the context. 
Page 17 : la feeule de pomme de terre. 
' Fecula is the sediment, or lees, which sub- 
sides from an infusion of many vegetable 
substances, espeeially applied to starch.' 
Compare Littr^ - Beaigean : ' F^cule. 
Autrefois, nom donn6 aux mati^res qui se 
pr^ipitent des sues obtenus par expression. 
Aigourd'hui. substance analogue k rami- 
don qu'on retire de diverses plantes. 
F^ule de pommes de terre.' The note 
should be simply 'potato -starch.' See 
any description of the autochrome process. 
Page 88 : * M, Jabloehkoff constructed the 
first commercially practical electrical 
candle.' This is what the text teUs us, 
yet it \b not a translation. Bather a 
pointless note. Our note has the word 
'first' What were the 'later' electric 



FROM HERE AND THERE 



129 



candles ? Instead of ' eleotrio candle ' in 
note read ' arc lamp.' Then all is clear 
and to the point. Page 40 : 8%oan. The 
notes here might be improved by the 
addition of a reference to the latest form 
of incandescent lamps, saoh as the Tanta- 
lum and Osram lamps, especially in view 
of the last sentence of the text of this 



piece. Page 46: hobine, '''core'* (of 
wood) '; not 'core,' but * drum.* 

It wotdd appear that the notes need 
considerable revision before the stadent 
can consider them reliable. 

We would suggest the addition after 
each author's name of the dates of his life, 
or of the date of publication of the extract. 



FROM HERE AND THERE. 



GAMBBiDas UNivsBsrnr.~The tercen- 
tenary of the birth of John Milton, who 
was bom on December 9, 1608, wiU be 
celebrated at Ohrist Ck>llege by an exhibi- 
tion of 'Miltoniana.' Dr. George G. 
Williamson and Mr. A. K Shipley. F.B.S., 
are getting together what is hoped will 
form the most complete exhibition of 
busts, paintings, prints, and miniatures of 
the poet that has ever been shown. Such 
early editions of Milton's works as are 
available will also be on view, and in the 
catalogue of these, which Mr. Oharles 
Sayle is kindly preparing, the homes of 
others which, owing to the regulations of 
the libraries, cannot be lent, are indicated. 
It is intended that the exhibition will be 
open for some hours a day, probably from 
12 noon to 1 p.m., and from 2 p.m. to 
4 p.m., during the latter half of Juno and 
for a week in July. The college proposes 
to give a dinner on Friday, July 10, to 
celebrate the tercentenary, and on the 
same day some students wiU present 
'Masque of Comus,' with the music by 
Henry Lawes. 

Hk Hk % 

Oaxbridos XJNiYiBSiTT.—The titular 
degree of Master of Arts honoris oa/uaa has 
been conferred on Major Martin Hume, 
editor of the State Papers of the Reigns of 
Henry VIII. and Elizabeth, and author 
of lives of Lord Burghley and Sir Walter 
Balei^, and of Histories of Spain and 
the Spanish People. 

% Hk Hk 

Oaxbridos Ukitxbsitt, Gibtok Ool- 
Lxox.— College Scholarriiipe of £80 each 
have been awarded to Miss M. Soman 
(Norwich High School) and Miss F. B. 
Hanner (Oity of London School), bracketed 



equal in Modem Languages. An Exhibi- 
tion of £15 has been awarded to Miss 
H. M. Hetley (Sydenham High School) 
for French and German. 

Hk Hk % 

Manchxbtbr Univxbsity.— Mr. Edgar 
Prestage, B.A. Oxon, has been appointed 
Special Lecturer in Portuguese Literature ; 
and Mr. Joseph HaU, M.A.. D.Litt, 
Headmaster of ithe Hnlme Grammar 
School, Special Lecturer in Middle Eng- 
lish. 

% % % 

OxroBD Univsbsitt. — The degree of 
D.Iitt. hovuniB causa has been conferred 
on Mr. T. N. Toller, M.A., formerly 
Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge. 
Dr. Famell, in presenting Mr. Toller to 
the Vice-Chancellor, dwelt upon his ser- 
vices to the study of the English language 
and its sources, as well as in the capacity 
of Professor at the Victoria University, as 
also in the enlargement and completion, 
for the Clarendon Press, of the Saxon 
Dictionary, commenced many years since 
by the late Professor Bosworth, thus con- 
stituting a special claim upon the recogni- 
tion of the University. 

Hk Hk % 
OxroBD UNiyEBSiTT.^rheGk)ldsmiths* 
Company have offered £10,000 to the 
Appeal Fund for the establishment of a 
Readership in English Language and 
Literature. 

% % % 

OXTOBD UNIVXBfilTT, SOMIBVILLS 

CoLLSGX. — An Exhibition of £85 has been 
awarded to Miss Doris de Zouohe (liver- 
pool High School) for Modem Languages ; 
and Exhibitions of £Stf to Mies Nellie 



130 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Henderaon (City of London School) for 
English, and to Miss CJonstance Todd 
(St. Felix School, Southwold), for Modem 
Langnagee. 

% % % 

RkADHYCS UNITXB8ITT GOLLBOS.^Mr. 

F. Bernard Boordillon, B.A. Oxon, has 
been appointed Lecturer in German and 
Warden of Wantage HalL 

% % % 

St. Andkxwb.— The Committee for the 
Training of Teachers has appointed Mr. 
Robert Jackson, M.A., to be Leotorer in 
Fhonetios and Assistant Master of Method. 

^ ^ ^ 

Mils F. M. PuBDiB, the very snooessfol 
Headmistress of the Exeter High School, 
has been appointed Headmistress of the 
High School at Sydenham. Mindftd of 
the many serrioes Miss Pordie has rendered 
the canse of Modem Language Teaching 
and onr Association, we rejoice in this 
appointment, and wish her many happy 
years of satisfying work in her new sphere 
of aotiyity. 

% % Tk 

Mr. E&NK8T Hugh MoDouoall, Pro- 
fessor of English History at Elphinstone 
College, Bombay, since 1906, died on 
April 11 at Malrem, at the age of thirty. 
Educated at Haileybuiy and at New 
College, Oxford, where he graduated M. A., 
Mr. McDougall entered the Indian Educa- 



tion Service in 1896, and in that year wu 
appointed Professor of English literatare 
at Deccan College, Poena. He was a 
Fellow of Bombay UniTersity, and the 
author of several educational and historiosl 
works. 

% % % 

The delegates of the Oxford Local 
Examinations have resolved to add Espe- 
ranto to the list of subjects for the Senior 
Examination ; it is included in the time- 
table for 1909. 

% % % 

Under the auspices of the International 
Visits Association a visit has been arranged 
this year to Norway. The usual Couzie 
of Lectures on the characteristic features 
of the country, its history, institutions, 
and literature, wiU be held in Christiania, 
from August 18 to 27. Among the lectures 
may be mentioned one on the ' Vikings,* 
by Professor Alexander Bugge ; on the 
' Landsmaal,' by Professor Hoegshad ; on 
' Wergeland,' by Mr. Hans Eitiem. In 
connexion with the ' Ibeen and Bjomson 
Week,* which will be in progress at the 
National Theatre during the visit, a 
lecture will be given by Dr. Collin on 
<Peer Gynt' and < The Norwegian 
Peasant in Bjomson's Novels.' Pro- 
gramme of the lectures and any further 
particulars of the visits may be had from 
the Hon. Secretary, Miss F. M. Butlin, 
Old Headington, Oxford. 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



JouBiTAL OF Education, April, 1908: 
Hie Training of the Secondary Teacher 
(J. Stron£[) ; The Descriptive Touch and 
unagery in the Teaching of Literature 
(WTMacpherson). May, 1008 : A Woman's 
Club in Paris (E. C. Matthews). 

• SoHOOii World, April, 1908 : An 
English-. Teacher's Worldng Library 
(N., L. jB^azer). May, 1908 : Common 
Faulty in*' French Pronunciation (S. A. 
Richards)!^ The Teaching of Enjelish in 
American High Schools (W. H. Winch) ; 
Some Duties and Difficulties of an Editor 
of Toxt-books— II. (C. Brereton}; The 
Teaching of EnffUsh Composition to 
Upper ^rms (Katibarine R. Heath). 

Educational Times, April, 1908: 
Practice and Prejudice in Education 



(J. W. Adamson). May, 1908 : the same 
(concluded). 

School, April, 1908 : Shakespeare in 
London (E. Young). May, 1908: The 
Use of the Library for Pumoses of Refer- 
ence (E. Young); Elasticity (O. H. 
Ckrke). 

Dis Nbusrxn SpsAOHXir, April, 1908 : 
Die Muttersprache im fremdspraclilichen 
Unterricht-Schluss (H. Biittner). 

Lis Lanottsb Modbsnxs, Amil, 1908 ; 
Traducteurs et Pontes : C.-M. thsruier et 
K Legouis (F. Delattre) ; Reaction et Pro- 
gr^ (A. Pinloche). 

MoDERNA Sprak, Maroh, 1908 : La Loi 
des Trois Consonnes (F. Leray). April, 
1908: the same (concluded). 



ri^y 



llf ^' 



MODERN LANGUA^f y 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH THB ASSISTANCB OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A. A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. No. 5 



JULY, 1908 



LOOKING FOEWAED. 



Before this number of Modern 
Language Teaching appears, the 
Association of which it is the organ 
will have come to a decision which 
bids fair to lead to important de- 
velopments. 

The members of the Modern 
Language Association are aware 
that the arrangements for publish- 
ing the Modem Language Review 
have for some time occupied the 
earnest attention of the various 
committees. Professor Robertson, 
its most able and energetic editor, 
has long realized that an increase 
in the size of the Review is essential 
if it is to become adequately repre- 
sentative of British scholarship. 
This conviction is shared by all 
who are interested in the Review, 
An increase of size necessarily im- 
plies an increase of cost» and the 
arrangement by which the Review 



is supplied to members of the 
Association can no longer be main- 
tained. 

The connexion between the Re- 
view and the Modern Language 
Association is, however, not to be 
severed. There are many who 
would regard such a separation as 
little short of a calamity. In the 
nature of things it is inevitable 
that our Association should contain 
various elements if it is to be truly 
representative. That the bulk of 
its members should be teachers in 
schools is a matter of course ; but 
it fortunately includes also a 
notable proportion of Modem Lan- 
guage Professors and Lecturers at 
our Universities, and of private 
scholars and lovers of the modem 
languages and literatures. It is of 
supreme importance for the health, 
growth, and activity of our Associa- 
10 



132 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



tion that all should work loyally 
together, whatever be the direction 
in which their chief interests lie. 

When we consider the work 
which the Association has been 
doing during the last fewyears, it will 
be conceded that the record is not 
one of which we need be ashamed. 
On the other hand, no one will be 
so easily contented as not to feel 
that a great deal remains to be 
done; and in order to do it we 
must exert ourselves to the utmost. 
Those who have a knowledge of the 
inner working of the Association 
are able to bear witness how 
strenuously the members of the 
General and Executive Committees 
have worked, and there is no reason 
to think that they will relax their 
efforts. But the ordinary member 
also can help, and there is no better 
time than the present. 

The activities of the Association 
have often been hampered by lack 
of funds. We believe that the 
funds at the disposal of the Associa- 
tion are used to the best purpose, 
but with more money much more 
could be effected. We must have 
more members; and a determined 
effort is now to be made to increase 
our numbers. 

The annual subscription is to be 
reduced to seven shillings and six- 
pence, and those who join the 
Association in September will pay 
only eight shillings and sixpence for 
the period ending in December of the 
following year. This will come into 
effect at once. It is earnestly hoped 
that this will lead to a marked in- 
crease in our membership. Not long 



ago the Secretary issued an analTSis 
of the members on our list^ and many 
realized for the first time how small 
a proportion of women teachers be- 
longed to the Association. 

Now the women teachers of 
Modern Languages are doing 
splendid work. They are keen 
and conscientious; they take the 
greatest pains to perfect their 
knowledge, and they are ever 
anxious to improve their methods. 
Their salaries are, however, in many 
cases inadequate, and half a guinea 
may well have seemed prohibitive. 
The reduction in the subscription 
has been welcomed by many as 
likely to lead more women teachers 
to join, but it is not enough merely 
to reduce the subscription. We 
call upon all our members to become 
very active canvassing agents of the 
Association. It is clear that greater 
numbers mean not only more funds 
for carrying on our work, but 
greater influence and weight for the 
Association. 

To many members the reduction 
of the subscription will be welcome, 
and we are glad for their sakes that 
it has been reduced. But there are 
many to whom it is a matter of no 
personal concern, and these we 
would remind that seven shillings 
and sixpence is the minimum sub- 
scription. Are we asking too much 
in pleading that such members 
should continue to contribute their 
annual half-guinea — or even more — 
to the Association 1 Let them re- 
member how much remains to be 
done; they may rest assured that 
the money will be well spent 



THE BOAED OP EDUCATION AND MODERN LANGUAGES 133 



To return to our publications: 
more funds wiU mean the possibility 
of increasing the size of Modern 
Lanouaos Teaching and rendering 
it more attractive. It is not because 
we love small type that we have 
used it so frequently of late ; it is 
because we are limited to thirty- 
two pages. With the help of our 
members it may be possible before 
long to extend the limit to forty, 
or even forty-eight pages. 

The Modem Language Review will 
no longer be sent to our members 
without extra payment ; that is, of 
course, out of the question. An 
arrangement is, however, to be 
made by which our members will 
obtain it at a much reduced price, 
and we earnestly hope that a good 



number of our members will sub- 
scribe to it. That number will be 
an indication of the extent to 
which our Association is ready to 
encourage scholarship and research, 
without which Modem Language 
work is but a statue with feet of 
clay. It would be a disgrace to the 
Association if it allowed the Review 
to suffer through lack of support. 

We do not believe that support 
will be lacking. We are full of 
courage and hope. Our Association 
numbers in its ranks a great band 
of enthusiastic workers ; in the near 
future it will have a far greater 
number, inspired by the same fine 
enthusiasm. Now is the time for 
winning recruits; now let us put 
forth our best efforts. 



THE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND 
MODERN LANGUAGES. 



The new regulations for secondary 
schools which come into force on 
August 1 are of great importance 
for the study of modern languages 
in this country, and indicate a clear 
desire on the part of the Board that 
this important branch of a liberal 
education should be allowed to 
develop freely, unhampered by any 
puzzling and exasperating restric- 
tions. 

To the lay mind the old regula- 
tions seemed to imply that Latin 
was to be regarded in the light of 
the summum honum^ from which 
language all pupils would pass to 
French, and in the case of the gifted 
few to German. The effect of these 



regulations was to elbow German 
out of the curriculum, and the 
language has been gradually losing 
its hold in our secondary schools for 
girls as well as boys. 

That this was the case is amply 
proved by statistics now in the pos- 
session of the Modem Language 
Association and of the Society of 
University Teachers of German, and 
we understand that it is the inten- 
tion of these bodies to make public 
in due course the facts which these 
statistics reveal. 

It is not, however, necessary at 

the present time to pursue this side 

of the question. It is our pleasing 

duty to recognize the liberality of 

10—2 



134 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHINO 



the Board in removing what seemed 
to us an untoward obstacle to the 
study of modem languages — more 
particularly of German — and to 
draw attention to the prospects 
which this reform opens up for a 
more intensive study of modem 
languages in our schools. 

In schools with an early leaving 
age it will probably be found that 
an altemative course of French and 
German wiU become quite as much 
sought after as the more usual one 
of French and Latin. Given skilled 
teachers, there is no reason why 
boys and girls who leave school at 
the age of sixteen or seventeen 
should not have attained a thorough 
working knowledge of French and 
German, without having in any way 
forfeited the training in precision 
and exactitude which, for some 
occult reason, is more usually as- 
sociated with the study of ancient 
tongues. 

With a leaving age of eighteen 
or more we can look forward to 
reasonable facilities for a more 
thorough mastery of at least 
three foreign languages, and we 
hope that the excellent practice 
which is found in some schools of 
arranging for the genuine classical 
pupil to attain a useful working 
knowledge of both French and 
German — the last-named language 
being studied in the two highest 
forms of the school — will be further 
developed. On the desirability of 
this step there is not likely to be 
much difference of opinion among 
educationalists. 

The Board give no hint of the 



provision of different types of schools 
in the same area, and we conclude 
that they are not at present in 
favour of various types of secondary 
schools. 

The sharp demarcation into Gym- 
nasium, Realgymnasium, Oberreal- 
schule, and Realschule, is not in any 
way hinted at in the new regula- 
tions, but it is emphatically laid 
down that provision is now made 
for altemative courses within the 
schools. In other words, it is now 
possible for the majority of schools 
to arrange their time-tables so as to 
provide alternative courses in Greek, 
Latin, and one or two modem 
languages: Latin and two modem 
languages, or two modem languages 
without Latin: 

If these options are prudently 
and impartially administered in the 
schools, where we believe and trust 
they will be welcomed, there should 
be a considerable levelling up of 
the standard in language teaching 
generally. 

Something is to be said in favour 
of one school with three so-called 
sides rather than three separate 
and distinct organizations. There 
is, in the first place, an economic 
gain in relatively small areas which 
could hardly support three schools 
of distinct type ; again, the presence 
of schools of distinct type in the 
same area sometimes tends to mark 
social distinction or the reverse, and 
thus leads to a certain snobbishness 
which all true friends of education 
deplore. 

At the same time there is a 
danger that secondary schools, as 



THE BOARD OF EDUCATION AND MODERN LANGUAGES 136 



well as elementary schools, may 
be allowed to grow to an un- 
wieldy size. Numbers exercise, we 
fear, a magical spell on the peda- 
gogic mind, and Boards of Gover- 
nors like to exhibit the legend, 
* House full : standing room only,' 
and to swell their exchequer by 
admitting pupils in excess of the 
legitimate accommodation of the 
buildings, thereby endangering the 
quality of the teaching and the 
health of the staff. Where these 
conditions prevail, and in largo areas, 
it would be well to attempt the ex- 
periment of differentiation in the 
tjrpe of school. When such an 
experiment is tried, one of the 
conditions of success will be that 
the fees charged in every type 



of secondary school in the same 
area should bo the same. We 
do not want cheap modem schools 
employing cheap labour, and provid- 
ing a cheap and therefore scamped 
education. 

We wish to see modern sides and 
modem schools manned by highly 
qualified trained teachers who 
impart instruction on rational lines, 
and whose vitality is not impaired 
by excessive hours of work, or 
mental vision dulled by the con- 
templation of the res angustce domi 
when the climacteric is attained, and 
by the prospect of the old age 
pension, which they certainly will 
have to claim under present condi- 
tions — if they ever attain the age of 
threescore years and ten. 



THE USE OF MODERN METHODS OF TEACHING FRENCH 

AND GERMAN WITH A VIEW TO TRAINING IN 

LITERARY APPRECIATION.* 



My paper is frankly egotistical. 
Not being an inspector or even a 
peripatetic teacher, my opportunities 
of observation are restricted to my 
own school. If I seem to speak 
too much of that, I crave your 
indulgence beforehand. Circum- 
stances limit me, not choice. 

I have tried to base all I have to 
say on the concrete. In Modern 
Language work an ounce of experi- 
ment is worth many pounds of 
theory. I have tried to avoid the 

* Report of lecture given by Miss 
Pardie (Head-mistress, L.C.O. Sccondftry 



School, Sydenham Hill, late Head-mistress 

High 
OIBces, Leeds, Saturday, May 16, 1908. 



Exeter High School) at the Education 



illusory treatment of the pure 
theorist by recording individual 
cases. 

I have approached the problem 
from the point of view with which 
I am most familiar — a girPs high 
school where the leaving age is 
eighteen to nineteen, and where 
a liberal education, including the 
teaching of more than one foreign 
language, is given. 

My remarks are largely based 
upon the teaching of French. Here, 
in the North, I believe German is 
still widely taught. In the South, 
unfortunately, Glerman has been of 
late years very largely curtailed, in 



136 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



some cases ousted, by Board of 
Education regulations in favour of 
Latin. What I say of French, 
muiatis mutandis, applies also to 
German. 

Firsts what does appreciation 
imply t I think we may postulate 
three qualities : (1) understanding; 
(2) sympathy; (3) an imaginative 
insight. 

How far do modem methods 
compare with the old methods in 
evoking and training these qualities) 
How far do modern methods achieve 
their goal? Let us take first 
appreciation in its widest sense. 
How do the modem methods com- 
pare with the old in evoking ap- 
preciation of the French national 
genius — the French character, in- 
stitutions, daily life] There can 
be no doubt of the answer. In 
the great majority of cases a 
quarter of a century ago French 
was regarded in schools as the 
lesson which, above all others, bored 
by its pointlessness, its lack of con- 
nexion with practical life, its mono- 
tony, its deadliness. Such interest 
as the lesson had was usually not a 
spontaneous interest, but a fictitious 
and extraneous one stimulated by 
the desire for marks and prizes. 
Now, judging at least from my 
own school, it is the favourite 
lesson in the day, the one that 
would most reluctantly be spared, 
most gladly be duplicated. It 
produces a keen desire to meet 
and converse with the French, a. 
passionate longing to go abroad at 
the earliest possible moment, an 
extraordinary avidity in the direc- 



tion of reading French papers and 
stories, singing French songs, act- 
ing French plays, and memorizing 
French poetry. Interest, love, and 
sympathy are aroused ; comprehen- 
sion is insured; the French lan- 
guage becomes thevehicleof thought 
and self-expression; where difficul- 
ties to complete understanding 
occur, a trained imagination comes 
in to interpret. 

But can we claim that the modem 
methods do more than this, and 
lead on to an appreciation of litera- 
ture of the foreign tongue t If they 
do not, then surely they must be 
held to have achieved a very partial 
victory, and the advocates of the 
translational methods may with 
justice urge that the success we 
claim for our oral methods carries 
us only a little way on the path of 
tme excellence, and that the better 
part, that of literary appreciation, 
is their prerogative and theirs 
alone. 

Here we reformers must^ I feel, 
use strenuous self-examination and 
see whether, in our laudable en- 
deavour to secure ease of self- 
expression in the foreign tongue, 
accuracy of pronunciation, and a 
reasonable fluency and range of 
vocabulary, we have forgotten the 
weightier matters — a sense of 
style, an ear attuned to catch the 
subtler harmonies of speech, and 
a love for the masterpieces of 
literature. Fluency, facility, ac- 
curate pronunciation — excellent in 
themselves and an untold boon 
to the rising generation. But these 
things ought we to have done, and 



TRAINING IN LITERARY APPRECIATION 



137 



not to leave the other undone. Is 
fluency, after all, our utmost goal ? 
or is it only one means to an end — 
an end far nobler and more endur- 
ing? We all know the girl who 
has 'finished her education' by a 
couple of years' residence abroad, 
and who comes back to patter 
French and German to her delighted 
relatives. But, as a rule, what a 
tedious, superficial creature she is ! 
Fluency there is, yes ; but it is the 
fluency of a babbling brook, not the 
majestic flow of the deep, broad 
river. That is the danger which I 
think confronts some of us reformers 
— a fluency of the lips, but not a 
fluency of the mind. Pictures, 
songs, phonetic charts, question- 
naires, conversations — nothing could 
be more excellent ; but what do they 
lead up to ? Do we stop short at 
them? Finis corancU opus. The 
work of the V.s and VI.s is the 
real test of the method in use in 
the school. Granted that these 
methods lay a sound foundation, 
are we regarding them as we 
ought, as foundation simply, and 
seeing to it that a noble building 
is reared ? That at least in V.s and 
VI.S the work is mainly literary? 
That when our girls and boys go up 
to the University at eighteen or 
nineteen they go up with a mind 
richly stored with the best French 
and German literature, both classical 
and modern, and with such a power 
of enjoying those literatures that 
they turn to them for recreation as 
they would do to the great English 
writers ? Nothing less ought to be 
our aim, and I venture to think 



that \mder favourable conditions its 
achievement is quite within the 
bounds of possibility. 

We reformers are quite as stem 
with ourselves as are our critics, 
but to criticism, whether internal 
or external, let us at this point 
make one appeal — for patience. It 
is only ten years since the gospel 
of Reform was widely and efficiently 
preached. True, the herald of the 
new gospel had appeared in 1881, 
but I think it was not till 1898 that 
the movement began to make head- 
way, and that materials, in the way 
of books, lectures, experiments in 
schools, began to accumulate. For 
four or five years more it was all 
experimental and tentative; then 
the movement won the day, and 
even examining bodies began to be 
converted. 

The result is that for practical 
purposes the movement is only five 
or six years old— t.^., half a school 
generatioa Girls who began on 
New Method lines in the First Form 
are now in the Upper Fourth — ».«., 
just the stage before that at which 
the more purely literary study was 
to begin. The next three or four 
years, then, will be the crucial years, 
and in 1911 or 1912 we must 
examine ourselves afresh and see 
how far the aim I sketched above 
has been fulfilled. 

Remembering, then, that very 
few, if any, schools in England can 
at this moment show a YI. trained 
in French and German throughout 
on New Method lines, may I briefly 
sketch for you a picture of the 
YI. Form at the school which up to 



138 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Easter last I had the honour of 
representing 1 There are five girls 
in this Upper VI., aged seven- 
teen and a half to eighteen and a 
half. None of them has been in 
the school more than four to five 
year& All of them had learned 
languages on the grammatical and 
exercise principle previously. Thus 
they represent a very transitional 
state of things^ and by no means 
the ideal. They are also fettered, 
and have been fettered all along, by 
the chain of the god that the 
English people believe in — examina- 
tions. They are going in for the 
Cambridge Higher Local. 

They have five French lessons a 
week, of forty to forty-five minutes 
each, and one longer lesson last- 
ing about an hour and a quarter. 
This longer lesson has been devoted 
in the autumn and spring terms of 
this year to the reading of classical 
French plays of the set period. 
Two mistresses take parts, and 
the Lower VI. joins in, and one or 
two old girls, so that the numbers 
swell to about fifteen, an ample 
number for dramatic reading in 
parts. The reading takes place in 
the hall, the various dramatis per- 
soncR reading from the platform. 
Sometimes the play is finished 
or nearly finished, at one reading, 
sometimes it has to be finished the 
following week. Thus one play 
lasts a week or a fortnight. In the 
two terms up to Easter, 1 908, they 
had thus read sixteen French plays — 
Le.f the greater part of Comeille, 
Bacine, and Moli6re— and it was my 
intention to devote part of next 



term to the plays of modem French 
writers. 

But other lessons in the week 
must be given up to the preparation 
or revision of these plays; accord- 
ingly one lesson is a causerie on the 
more literary aspect of the play, the 
girls discussing with the mistress, in 
French, points relative to plot, char- 
acters, situation, etc. Sometimes 
such subjects are given out before- 
hand, to be looked up in French 
literature or thought out and pre- 
pared with a view to rScU work in 
class ; sometimes papers are written 
after the discussion, thus bringing 
free composition into play. 

In greater detail are studied the 
books set for the Higher Local set 
period, including some of the plays. 

Concurrently, a study is made of 
French literature — at least that of 
the set period — and in connexion 
with this essays are written. The 
book we have used is Lanson. 
Grammatical and philological work 
goes on side by side with the liter- 
ary work, but of that I need not 
now speak. It is found advisable 
to give one lesson a week to discus- 
sion of difficulties met with in read- 
ing, and the translation of a few 
carefully selected hard passages, 
so that the work may not lack 
thoroughness; this translation is 
sometimes impromptu, sometimes 
written, to test care in preparation. 

To German, four lessons of forty 
to forty-five minutes are given a 
week, as well as one long afternoon 
lesson which is devoted to the read- 
ing in parts of German plays. This 
is a small class, but the readings 



TRAINING IN LITERARY APPRECIATION 



139 



are very lively and much enjoyed. 
Eight plays have been read in rather 
more than a term — taken from 
Goethe, Schiller, Grillparzer, and 
Kleist. Of these, half have formed 
the subject of detailed literary 
treatment. 

On the subject of Sixth-Form 
literary French training, I have had 
the advantage of comparing notes 
with a teacher on Reform lines whose 
experience is two or three years 
in advance of my own. She, too, 
is limited in choice of books and 
authors by the exigencies of the Cam- 
bridge Higher Local. But in method 
I found we were strangely similar. 
Her material, like mine, consists of 
girls trained from the beginning on 
the intensive method, but as she 
teaches them herself only one lesson 
a week (another mistress taking 
other lessons), she prefers to read 
fewer plays and to go into them in 
greater detail. She takes them, act 
by act, with part-reading. At the 
end of such act a r^sum^ is given 
by the girls, sometimes viva voce^ 
sometimes written. This test of 
comprehension is supplemented by 
occasional translation, which may be, 
again, either impromptu or prepared. 
For free compositions such subjects 
are set as the following : character 
sketches, analytical surveys, discus- 
sions bearing on the ploty sequence 
of action, unfolding of character. 
These and kindred topics are dis- 
cussed from time to time in class, 
preparatory to or following on the 
essay. Due attention is paid to 
scansion and analysis of rhythm. 
In this connexion let me mention 



the excellent school editions pub- 
lished by Gamier Freres — annotated 
French editions of standard works. 
The workmanship in them is often 
far superior to that of English 
school editions, and ^the analytical 
appreciations are excellent. For a 
class accustomed to work wholly in 
French they are probably the best 
obtainable. 

Now I want you to notice the 
presuppositions of such VI. -Form 
work: 

1. Some measure of fluency and 
self-confidence in reading. 

2. Accuracy of pronunciation. 

3. Sufficient vocabulary and suffi- 
cient acquaintance with grammar 
to enable the eye and the ear to 
take in without strain the general 
sense of what is read. 

4. For success — enthusiasm. 

These are just the qualities pos- 
tulated above as constituting the 
foundations which the new method 
lays down, and which the old method 
so conspicuously failed to attain. 

But, creditable as this work may 
perhaps be considered, it is very far 
from representing my ideal. Let 
me briefly sketch a possible future 
of my Exeter Upper IV., girls now 
of thirteen to fourteen, who for the 
last five or six years have worked 
wholly on Reform lines. Their work 
at present comprises four lessons a 
week and only one and a half hours 
of preparation. It may be classified 
as follows : 

1. The use of a reader with ques- 
tionnaire. 

2. Free composition. 

3. Dictation. 



140 



MODERN LANaUAOE TEACHINa 



4. Ormmnuur deduced from the 
reader, and a diligent study ci aU 
verbs they meet, regular and irre- 
gular, in all tenses and iiiood& 

5. Grammatical exercises corre- 
lated with reader. 

6. Memorizing chiefly of poetry, 
songs, and short plays. 

To take first the reader. This is 
a source of great embarrassment to 
us. Daudet and Dumas are favourite 
authors with this form, but they 
gallop through the books we provide 
for them, swallowing up in one 
week what under old conditions 
would have lasted at least a tenn. 
For class work we insist on a 
questionnaire, that the book may 
not be simply read, but be marked, 
learned, and inwardly digested as 
well— and how few are as yet pro- 
vided with a good questionnaire! 
I mean a questionnaire worked 
through before publication with a 
class, not one that represents a few 
hours' labour in a study. All is 
grist that comes to these children's 
mill, provided it be in French — the 
French Bible, French newspapers, 
French novels ransacked out of 
forgotten comers at home. Read 
they must) but it is to be in 
French. 

Next, the free composition. This 
is based either on the r^it work 
done previously in class on the 
reader or on a short story that has 
been read to them in French or 
English, the substance of which is 
reproduced. It is important to 
correlate the free composition with 
good models to prevent lapse into 
slovenliness, so that from time 



to time eompontioii is dropped 
and a good piece iA prose is 
learned by heart instead. But the 
teacher of this form has need to 
be a very versatile person, and as 
the children outstrip the publishers 
in their zeal for stories suitable to 
thirteen to fourteen, she is some- 
times driven, in the absence of a 
book, to read to them a short story 
or other sketch from some modem 
author. How their eyes gleam 
when Mm pdit Trotte or a book of 
anecdotes is opened ! And for three- 
quarters of an hour the class of 
twenty sits spell-bound, enjoying 
not only the story, but the felicitiea 
of the narration, almost as much as 
would you or I. 

Here, then, it seems to me, is a 
possible beginning for one kind of 
training in the appreciation of litera^ 
ture, a device hit upon almost hap- 
hazard, but capable of indefinite 
extension. And here let me lay 
stress on the supreme importance 
of good reading and plenty of it. 
It is a matter in which the teacher 
cannot take too much pains to 
perfect herself. Grood reading, good 
recitation — occasionally, perhaps, 
the use of the gramophone, but I 
think only occasionally — and then 
by degrees the reading in parts of 
the simpler comedies, and at last 
the great dramas of French litera- 
ture, not necessarily prepared before- 
hand. It is amazing how difficulties 
vanish under wise direction and a 
sympathetic interpretation. 

There are five ways in which, in 
addition to free composition and 
granmiatical work, I should look 



TRAINING IN LITERARY APPRECIATION 



141 



forward to this form's study in the 
next four years : 

1. Extensive reading. 

2. Intensive reading. 

3. Memorizing. 

4. Translation. 

5. A cultivation of the art of 
description and narration — in a 
word, a sense of style. 

1. Exlmsive Reading, — One lesson 
a week I would keep for rapid read- 
ing. This might take the form 
usual in English work, where several 
chapters are set for home-work for 
the week, and the one lesson is 
given to discussion (either viva voce 
or written) of subjects arising out 
of the subject-matter ; or questions 
on those pages might be set in 
French to be answered in French; 
or difficult pieces might be selected 
from the passage for the week, 
and the class asked to construe 
either viva voce or in writing, or, 
again, to give the substance in their 
own words in French. It will be 
well to vary the lesson and to keep 
in it the element of surprise. The 
aim should be thorough appercep- 
tion by the pupils of the books 
thus rapidly read, and this in time 
might lead to the study of a period, 
with set authors each term^ the 
class having grown accustomed to 
read for themselves, test the 
thoroughness of their reading, and 
form their own conclusions. Lastly, 
as in the English course, critical 
essays could be written, one a week 
or one a fortnight, ample time for 
private reading being secured in 
between. 

In connexion with this extensive 



reading, I would also, by means of 
form libraries in French and German, 
encourage a habit of reading foreign 
books as a recreation. The form 
library would have to be chosen 
very carefully, with due grading in 
difficulty, so that on the one hand 
discouragement might not ekisue 
from difficult or abstruse books 
being supplied too early, and on 
the other hand the dignity of the 
form not be insulted by literature 
of too childish a type. 

2. Intensive Rexiding. — Another 
lesson a week might be devoted to 
a very careful detailed study of a 
much more difficult book. The 
study might well be both gram- 
matical and literary, and translation 
should be freely employed, but care 
should be taken that only a very 
high level of translation should be 
permitted. Only books of the 
highest literary excellence should 
be eligible for this intensive reading, 
as each one will leave an indelible 
impression, and the number so 
read will be very limited. For the 
subject-matter of this intensive 
reading I was at first nonplussed, 
at least as regards the first two 
years — ^i.«., Lower and Upper V., 
for the work of the VI. might well 
continue to follow Higher Local 
lines. At this point— Upper IV. — 
you remember my experience fails 
me, and for girls of thirteen to four- 
teen to sixteen I am obliged to body 
forth a visionary scheme. Given 
the power and rapidity of reading 
and the enthusiasm I have described 
above, could we not imagine these 
children as somewhat in the same 



142 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



position as French children, though 
allowing them to follow a year or 
two behind, and draw upon the 
experience of our French colleagues 
in mapping out their course t I 
have consulted the Plan d'fitudes 
for Secondary Education in France, 
and I find for the Classe de 
Quatri^me, which I think would 
more or less correspond with the 
class I have in view, the following 
list from which the teacher may 
choose: 

Morceaux choisis de prose et de 
vers des classiques fran^ais. 

Comeille, Sdnes choisies. 

Moli^re, Scbnes choisies. 

Racine, Aihalie. 

La Fontaine, FabUa (les six der- 
niers livres). 

Boileau, Le Lutrin, 

F6nelon, Choix de dialogue et de 
fables. 

Voltaire, Charles XIL ; Siccle de 
Louis XIV. 

Portraits et r^cits extraits des 
M^moires du XVII« et du XVIII« 
siecles. 

Chateaubriand, RicUs^ sdnes et 
paysages. 

Michelet, Extraits historlques. 

Choix de pontes du XIX« siccle. 

That seems to be a very sugges- 
tive list for reading for such a form 
as I had in mind. 

The Classe de Troisi^me (fourteen 
to fifteen) has a more extended 
list: 

Morceaux choisis de prosateurs 
et de pontes des XVI«, XVII«, 
XVIIIe, et XIX« siecles. 

Portraits et r^cits extraits des 
prosateurs du XVP siecle. 



Comeille, ThMre chain. 

Moli^re, Thmre chaisL 

Racine, Thidtre chaisi. 

Boileau, Satires et SpUres. 

Lettres choisies du XVIP et du 
XVIII* si^le. 

Chefs - d'oduvre po^tiques da 
Lamartine et de Victor Hugo. 

Chateaubriand, R^^its, schnes^ ei 
paysages. 

Michelet) Extraits historiques. 

This Classe de Troisi^me is the 
first where continuous composition 
is taught, and at this point a pr^ 
of French literary history is put 
into the hands of the class. 

The French Classe de Seconde 
and Classe de Premiere have an 
interesting list of authors which 
might well prove suggestive as an 
alternative to our Higher Local 
Syllabus. Notice the stress that is 
laid on Morceaux Choisis. The 
value of this in the teaching of 
French literature is endorsed by 
some of our best Reform teachers. 

Mr. Hartog in his recent book, 
The Writing of English, tells us: 
*The use of the Recueil de Mor- 
ceaux Choisis is regarded as an 
essential element in the teaching of 
the mother-tongue. These extracts 
from classical authors are almost 
invariably chosen so that each forms 
a complete piece in itself ; and 
the French boy who has not scraped 
some acquaintance with the prose 
of Bossuet, F^nelon, Pascal, La 
Bruy^re, Montesquieu, Mme de 
S^vign^, Voltaire, Rousseau, Buffon, 
Diderot, Chateaubriand, Mme de 
Stael, George Sand, Michelet, and 
with the dramas or poems of Cor- 



TRAINING IN LITERARY APPRECIATION 



143 



neille, Racine, Moli^re, Beaumar- 
chais, Victor Hugo, and Lamartine, 
to say nothing of contemporary 
aathors, is hardly to be found.' 
(Mr. Hartog is speaking of higher 
primary schools !) 

Note, too, the value assigned to 
La Fontaine. The first six books 
of his fables figure on the list for 
the Sizi^me and Cinqui^me, the 
last six for the Quatri^me. Three 
years of possible fables ! Why is 
this ? Mr. Hartog has given us one 
answer : 

*The pupils are taught to read 
great French authors and constantly 
to analyse what they read, to pass 
backward from the developed com- 
position to the plan. Of all authors 
the one who serves French style 
best is the incomparable La Fon- 
taine, incomparable for this pur- 
pose, because with perfect lightness 
of touch every fable is in itself a 
complete and definite composition, 
with not a word too much, and 
with each word adequate to its 
purpose.' 

3. Memorizing, — In dealing with 
the work suitable to a Fifth Form, I 
have now dealt with extensive and 
intensive reading. My third requisi- 
tion was memorizing. This memor- 
izing should embrace both prose 
and verse — pieces complete in them- 
selves, and chosen from the whole 
range of literature. There will be 
the descriptive passage ; the short 
story ; passages from great orators, 
historians, satirists; lyrics; drawing- 
room comedies; scenes from the 
great dramas. Every style is drawn 
on in turn. It might be well to 



correlate this memorizing with the 
translation work which I come to 
next. 

4. Translation,, — My fourth sug- 
gestion was translation, the fiower 
of language work. Notice that I 
reserve translation for the V.; it is 
to wait until speaking and thinking 
and dreaming in French has become 
second nature. Banish it till then. 
In the earlier stages use it only as a 
(sometimes) necessary evil. In the 
V. then, where conscious literary 
work begins, translation as an art is 
to begin. But here I would lay 
down many restrictions : (1) Limit 
translation severely to one short 
piece a week, very carefully chosen 
as a supreme example of style. 
(2) Put all the energies of teacher 
and taught into rendering that 
select piece into the most perfect 
English possible. (By the way, it 
is after you have hammered out the 
meaning and rendered it, with all 
its allusiveness, into the most per- 
fect English prose or verse you are 
capable of, that I would suggest 
learning it by heart.) (3) Put this 
translation work into the hands of 
one teacher who, besides the power 
of arousing appreciation for the 
beauty of language as language, 
must be a master of style. Prefer- 
ably she would be the head English 
or Classical teacher. She would 
take week by week in turn a pas- 
sage from Latin, French, German, 
possibly Greek, correlate them as 
far as possible with one another 
and with the work of the form in 
English. She will be the mistress, 
not of a language nor of languages, 



144 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



but of Language. If she i» wise 
and has a free hand, she will corre* 
late all the language work in such 
a way that^ instead of studying 
figures of speech and of rhetoric, 
diction of prose and poetry, metre, 
and such-like exercises, in English 
as an isolated language, she will 
study them concurrently in all the 
languages known to her pupils. They 
will collect and classify examples 
from all alike, and will gain enor- 
mously from studying the varieties 
of the national genius in self-expres- 
sion along these lines. What an 
awful waste of time and energy we 
too often see where parallel work is 
being done by several teachers of 
languages at once, with much over- 
lapping and consequent confusion 
on the part of their pupils ! In this 
Connexion, may I most earnestly 
deprecate wholesale translation. 
Hardly anything so tends to blunt 
the sense of style ; it is hardly pos- 
sible, page after page, to maintain 
with rapid reading a high level of 
excellence, and carelessness in phras- 
ing and rhythm is the result, if not 
actual slovenliness and inaccuracy. 

5. Style. — My fifth point was a 
cultivation of the art of description, 
narration, etc. — command of style 
both in spoken and written French. 
How is this to be attained ? This 
is the hardest question of all, and I 
cannot pretend to give an adequate 
answer. Partly, it will depend 
on the idiosyncrasy of the teacher, 
of her own powers of narration, 
which will 8ei*ve as unconscious 
models, and upon her powers of 
sympathetic criticism. Eemember 



we have assumed that by the Fourth 
Form much fluency and facility in 
the foreign tongue has beenattained ; 
what we have to do now is to secure 
training in proportion, form, style. 
A high standard set in all English 
lessons (history, literature, etc) 
will be of immense help ; and here 
again let me insist on the economy 
affected by co-operation between 
specialists of the different human- 
istic subjects. Form, style, propor- 
tion in viva voce answering, and in 
set compositions: if we cannot 
secure them in the mother-tongue, 
how can we hope to secure them in 
another language t 

But French models will undoubt- 
edly help us, and in few depart- 
ments of school life shall we turn 
for guidance and inspiration so 
eagerly and so gratefully to our 
French colleagues as in this work. 
Mr. Hartog has pointed the way 
and has suggested in foot-notes 
many books which will help us. 
Best of all, let us go to France our- 
selves and watch the lessons in the 
highest forms as far as they bear 
on the mother-tongue. We shall 
not lose our reward. Then there is 
the study — the close, patient, analy- 
tical study of French masterpieces 
of style, and the learning by heart 
that I have referred to, even in the 
highest forms. But all will really 
depend on the self-cultivation of 
the teacher, and the pursuit of a 
high aim — the aim, I venture to 
assert, of the best French teacher 
rather than of the average English- 
man. 

One word more and I have done. 



TEAINING IN LITERARY APPRECIATION 



145 



In all the school work let the 
teacher's aim for the highest form 
be in sight from the moment of the 
child's entry into the lowest form. 
Let the French or Grerman specialist 
plan out all the work of the school 
from lowest to highest so that every 
detail of every year shall contribute 
to the one great aim. Not a patch- 
work, where the work of the forms 
is thought out year by year, and the 
result is overlapping here, gaps and 
weak places there, one aim in one 
form, a totally different one in the 
forms below and above. No ; it is 
a great art we have in hand, this 
mastery in a foreign tongue of the 
secrets of her literature. Not with- 
out dust and toil will the goal be 
attained. See to it^ you specialists, 
that from the Kindergarten to the 
Sixth Forms, every detail and every 
year is planned out to achieve, at 
last, the great reward. 

I have spoken above of favourable 
conditions. But one characteristic of 
English life drives me to despair — I 
mean the restlessness of parents as 



to their children's education. Con- 
tinuity of education seems to be the 
last thing they care for. Cheap fees, 
cheap governesses, a fancied superi- 
ority of social status, the assumed 
superiority of foreign schools, these 
are paramount considerations ; but 
a definite scheme of ordered instruc- 
tion and the consequent need for 
continuity in school-life, these rarely 
seem to enter their heads. Which of 
us with much experience of school- 
life but knows what a small propor- 
tion of our pupils pass up regularly 
through the school from the lowest 
form to the highest? The late- 
comers, the new-comers, taught on 
a very different system, if taught at 
all, cripple our work, ruin our forms. 
Till we can secure either the general 
recognition of the need of continuity 
of school-life, or State Regulated 
Schools, I fear it will be but rarely 
that the ideal French or German 
pupil, such as I have sketched, will 
be the product of our schools. 

F. M. PURDIE. 



DISCUSSION COLUMN. 

WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF PUBLIC EXAMINATION AND 
INSPECTION ? 

Contributions for this column should be sent not later than September 15 
to Mr. F. B. Kirkman, Lavengro, Norton Way North, Letchworth (please 
note change of address). This discussion closes in the October number. 

VII. 
Mr. N. L. Frazsr 



(Croydon), 

A FEW weeks ago a distingnished scholar 
was inspecting a school on behalf of an 
ancient university. The form had been 



reading ComeiUe, and in the course of the 
lesson had discussed — in French — matters 
philological and literary. At the end of 
the period the distinguished scholar had 
one question to ask : ' How do you mark 
them f ' he said. But, fortunately, the 
ancient universities are not the only 



146 



MODERN LANQUAGE TEACHING 



inipeoting bodies in England, and moat 
inspectors are snfSciently ondistingnished 
to bo osefal. 

To put the matter in a phrase, I think 
that the hope of the futnre in Modem 
Language Teaching lies in Du more 
inspection and far less examination. The 
tendency of examination is to stereotype 
method, and although many interesting 
and useful experiments in examining hare 
taken plaoe in recent years, the tendency 
is still apparent. Besides, it is just as 
easy and just as tempting to cram candi- 
dates for 'Reform' examinations as it 
was for the older absurdities. If there is 
efficient inspection and plenty of it, 
outside examination can be reduced to 
the minimum required for professional 
purposes — ^that is, it can bo restricted to 
the higher forms of school. In the middle 
and lower forms I would have none of it ; 
occasional internal tests are not at present 
in question. 

If it bo granted that we are only 
examining at the end of a school course, 
many difficulties would seem to be solved ; 
for we are no longer concerned vdth atagts 
— where the mdhod of presentment is all- 
important — but with a relatively large 
acquirement. Now that we are happily 
almost emancipated from the extremer 
type of purely philological examiner, it 
does not really matter very much whether 
a boy of seventeen — to take a mean age — 
is asked to show on paper his general 
proficiency in French by translation or by 
free composition, or by aided composition, 
or by syntactical exercises, or by formal 
grammar. A method of teaching which 
would not prepare a boy of such an age at 
the end of his course to acquit himself 
respectably in an examination requiring 
one or all of these subjects has little to 
commend it, be it never so ' reformed.' 

In the oral part of the examination — 
unfortunately there are still examinations 
of repute in which an oral test has no 
necessary part — it should be possible for 
an examiner to adapt himself in a very 
short time to the special training of the 
examinee. Topics of a general character 



could easily be found to test pronuncsatios 
and grasp of idiom without having r»- 
course to the banalities which in the 
beginning of the movement did so much 
to hinder sound teaching along the lines 
of appreciation hinted at by Mr. Bridge in 
his contribution last month. Beading I 
hold to be an excellent part of an onl 
test, for there would be little difficulty in 
discovering whether the piece was really 
being read in the foreign or the mother 
tongue, and any exaggerated predaioii 
of pronunciation might oonoeivably be 
accounted a virtue, reflecting painstaking 
teaching, ratlier than a &ult implying 
want of naturalness. 

It may be said that in thus airily 
dismissing examinations I choose the easy 
way and ignore the tendency of the times 
— especially at a moment when the Board 
of Education seems inclined, in its new 
regulations, to emphasize their importance. 
But perhaps the Scottish Department has 
been wiser in throwing the full weight of 
examinations on the end of the school 
course in the form of Leaving Certificates. 
In any case, other correspondents are 
likely to follow the indications given in 
the syllabus for this discussion suggested 
by Mr. Kirkman, and to devote a large 
share of their attention to the details of 
examination rather than to inspection. I 
am well aware, however, that the fever 
for examinations— showing so tangibly, 
even if speciously, results and comparisons, 
and lending themselves so easily to 
advertisement — is not likely to abate in 
our present competitive system, and that 
if we must endure them in intermediate 
stages of teaching, we must supply such 
checks as to render them as little harmful 
as possible. I have, therefore, only to 
suggest — the suggestion is not new, it 
flourishes in certain places — that alterna- 
tive schemes of work, indicative of method 
pursued, should be submitted by in- 
dividual teachers, or that papers should 
be set by the examiners in consultation 
with the teachers or their representatives. 

Inspection, which requires great ex- 
perience and tact, largely evades rigidity of 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



147 



method. TobereaUyiuefol,!! isneoesaary 
that the inspector ahoold have an oppor- 
tunity of watching theclais at work in its 
normal coarse, not once only, or eyen 
more than once, with long intervals 
between ; continuity and progression are 
etsential. The merely sporadic form of 
inspection still favoured by some schools, 
who hug themselves with a minimum of 
inspection as with a cherished privilege, 
is of very doubtful value. In such case, 
it has been found well for the teacher to 
set a short test, correct it, and pass it on 
to the inspector, who then, with the test 
bafore him, talks to the form on this 
material. In this way the inspector is 
perhaps able to gauge the methods em- 
ployed and the standards attained some- 
what more definitely than by merely 
listening to an isolated lesson, and some- 
what more sympathetically than by 
questioning the form without any further 
knowledge of their capacities. But after 
all, inspection has for its aim not so much 
the testing of knowledge as the securing 
of good methods by a species of free 
ez<^ange in ideas and experiments, 
effected through the medium of a receptive 
and discerning inspector. 

VIII. 

Mr. C. H. S. Willson 

(Lymm Grammar School), 

In the valuable and most interesting 
discussion now being conducted in your 
columns one clear point that has been 
brought out, in nearly all the contributions 
80 far, has particularly struck me — i.e., the 
almost unanimous desire for a cessation of 
Public Examinations in Modem Languages 
— at any rate, in our Junior and Middle 
Forms. Looked at from the point of view 
of the present chaotic and transitional 
state of much of our Modem Language 
Teaching, the multiplicity of examining 
bodies catering for all ages and stages 
surely cannot £ul to be a very real evil. 
In this connexion it is important to 
remember that there has been in too many 
schools, so fiyr, a third party to be con- 



sidered as well as the examinee and the 
teacher — viz., the headmaster. So long as 
these examinations exist, and the ex- 
aminers dangle the bait — to wit, successes 
to be advertised in our annual list— so long 
the temptation will remain for the head- 
master and the conscientious difficulty for 
the Reform teacher. Under existing cir- 
cumstances it is hardly fair to argue that 
Modern Language teachers, for the most 
part assistant teachers, are always masters 
of their own or their pupils' fate in this 
important respect. I remember on one 
occasion apologizing to an inspector for 
the nature of the preparation in a class I 
was conducting, for a preliminary ex- 
amination which they were to take in a 
fortnight's time. He acquiesced in my 
lament, and informed me that he was one 
of the examiners for the said examination. 
I naturally looked for better things in the 
next paper, but, alas ! it was the same old 
round of feminines, plurals, and past 
participles. How are we to escape from 
this difficult situation ? Mr. Atkinson 
seems to put his trust in the recognition 
of a school as being efficient, which is to 
serve as an antidote against advertisement 
and the desire for advertisement. But 
a recognition of efficiency will hardly 
destroy the rivalry in this matter of 
examination results existing between too 
many schools. Our best hope perhaps lies 
in the conversion of the headmasters 
themselves to the necessity of abolishing 
the greater part of these outside tests in 
the best interests of their junior pupils. 
To sum up my impression on this point, 
whatever the future may bring forth, the 
present seems to me to be eminently a 
time for the suppression, temporary or 
permanent, of these too numerous outside 
tests. 

To tum for a moment to one or two 
other points raised in your suggestive 
syllabus. I was very interested to note 
that in the examination for Naval Cadet- 
ships at Osborne, the first question in 
French consisted of a passage of unseen 
French, which the candidates were re- 
quested to read through carefully, but not 

11 



148 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



translate. Alter this oarefol reading of 
the passage the candidate is called upon 
to answer questions on the subject-matter 
in complete sentences. I may be labouring 
under a delusion, but I must confess that 
I cannot see in what way, if a pupil has 
laboriously and carefully puzzled out the 
meaning of a passage, he is to benefit by 
not being called upon to reproduce his 
impression of the passage on paper. I 
was always myself under the impression 
that the ability to read and not translate 
from the foreign tongue was a very difficult 
art, and one that can only come after 
years of practice, as in the case of 
Macaulay's. ideal Greek scholar who should 
be able to read Plato in an armchair in 
f^nt of the fire. Personally, on this 
point I deeply regret the present prejudice 
which appears to exist against set books. 
It is one which I am persuaded time and 
reflection will eliminate. While by no 
means absolutely confining the written 
and oral test to the text read, I would 
like to see it figure far more conspicuously 
than it does at present in examinations. 
A study of the papers on set books as they 
are usually set at present generally reveals 
the very fragmentary and unsatisfactory 
nature of the same. One or two passages 
selected at random, a few points of 
grammar or parsing on the old lines, and 
perhaps one question on the subject- 
matter, often to be answered in English. 
Dealt with in the proper way, and in 
conjunction with one or two other 
necessary teats, such as ability to translate 
an unseen passage and to read the same 
intelligently after five minutes* study, the 
set book should form the basis of all our 
work— translation, grammar, conversation, 
and reproduction. I should add, perhaps, 
that by ' set book ' I prefer to understand 
the text selected by the teacher as most 
suitable for the particular class. 

Turning for a moment to the question 
of oral tests, I cannot agree that to base 
the oral test chiefly on the set book would 
be putting a premium on cramming. For 
senior candidates the depth, variety, and 
range of question that can be drawn from 



a good text ought to be, in the hands 
of an experienoed examiner, a mjJBatmt 
guarantee against any possibflitj of thii 
evil arising. I would supplement with a 
reading test, and if questions of a groefal 
nature are essential, I would have them 
confined to two or three snbjects in which 
the candidate was especially interested in 
his everyday reading — not in claas reading. 
I think that an oral test on an nnseen 
passage would be decidedly nnsatiafaefewy, 
more especially for a nervous candidate, 
who could not possibly be expected to do 
himself justice under such conditions. 

To touch, lastly, on the vexed qnestum 
of Free Ck>mposition and the prose test 
We have thoroughly decided in oar minds 
that the old method of setting a pupil, 
after a certain amount of dosing in sentence- 
writing, to turn into French a oontinnous 
passage from an author, was asking him to 
to do something which he was obvioaaly 
quite incapable of doing. Ardent re- 
formers then had resort to the opposite 
extreme of giving him a subject and letting 
him deal with it in his own sweet way. 
The evils of this system, especially for 
examination and marking purposes, axe 
daily becoming more obvious. With a 
view to overcoming some of the chief 
difficulties which beset the path of Free 
Composition pure and simple, several 
excellent books have recently been pub- 
lished, in which an attempt is made to 
supply material for class composition, in 
order that there may be some co-ordination 
in the work produced by the pupils. 
This is certainly a step in the right 
direction. But in this matter also it does 
seem to me that the via media of Repro- 
duction is for the present the via tuHssimc^ 
Such reproduction in an examination test 
may be either based on some particular 
incident in the set book or may take 
the shape, as in the Scottish Leaving 
Certificate, of a story read out by the 
examiner slowly, and reproduced by. the 
candidates. Such a test appears to me 
effectually to meet the requirements of the 
case, while, in judicious hands, it should 
avoid the risk of excessive difficulty, which 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



149 



wu the chief drawback of the old system, 
and that of exoessive vagueness and 
yariety, a chaige which may, with some 
jnttice, be brought against the new. 



IX. 

Mb. a. T. Pollard. 

Your invitation to all and sundry to 
discuss Methods of Public Examination 
and '.Inspection induces me to send a few 
lines on the subject The foremost re- 
quisite is that every effort should be made 
to do justice to the teacher. It seems to 
me that this result would be attained if 
the teacher were allowed to submit, in 
addition to the work done, a statement as 
to how it was done, and how it could be 
best tested, if tested by written examina- 
tion ; also, after the paper had been set to 
the boys or girls, a memorandum as to 
how far, in his or her opinion, it did test 
the work. The examiner would consider 
these documents in reporting. I do not see 
that a teacher can expect more: an ex- 
amination has for its object not only to 
see that the teacher has done his work by 
good methods so as to produce results, but 
to give new points of view, to correct any 
narrowness or grooviness which may exist, 
to see that a teacher — in a school, at any 
rate — has not forgotten his relation to the 
forms above and below that which he 
teaches, etc. A perfectly free hand cannot 
be given to any teacher, except possibly 
in the highest form, when, however, he is 
generally more than sufficiently limited 
by the requirements of outside examina- 
tion. I take the view that the teacher 
should not bo associated with the examiner 
in the actual work of examination ; one 
outside opinion on his discharge of his 
duties may be bad ; if so, get another 
which is more to be trusted ; but on no 
account let us lose the stimulus and 
correction resulting from outside points 
of view. I am old-fashioned enough to 
believe that examination of results is, on 
the whole, better than inspection of 
methods. I do not deny that inspection 



is good in the case of young and unformed 
teachers, or on the introduction of new 
methods of teaching, as in the case of the 
Reform method^ but surely a teacher must 
attain his teaching minority some day ; 
he cannot, with dignity, be always under 
tutelage himself and never an adult. 
Again, the point that is all-important is to 
ascertain that a teacher does teach, not 
that he can do so, and examination alone 
is capable of testing the result on the pupils. 
In every line of life men are judged, and 
test themselves by results, and teachers 
cannot expect to be exceptions. Inspec- 
tion is all very well as a basis for the 
recognition of a school, and to test the 
headmaster, particularly after a change of 
headmasters, or, it may be, the governing 
body— I mean, to see, once in a way, that 
a school makes a reasonable attempt, by 
good methods and adequate teachers, to 
carry out its obligations to boys and 
parents— its prospectus, in fact— but, 
except as an occasional thing, it is not 
very becoming or useftd. An examination, 
however, should be oral as well as written, 
and I am inclined to think that the oral 
examination should come before the 
written, and should, in fact, be a guide to 
the examiner, who would then be ac- 
quainted with the conditions, in setting 
papers to be answered in writing. Per- 
sonally, I have found inspection, in the 
case of a school, very unsatisfying ; ex- 
amination does not tell one all that one 
wishes to know, but, of the two, it tells a 
vast deal more than inspection. If my 
pen were equal to the task, I should like 
to write * A Counterblast against Inspection 
as a Substitute for Examination.' Inspect 
anything else about a school that yon like, 
but let visitations of the classroom by 
alien inspectors for the purpose of in- 
spection be reduced to a minimum, 
and let examination, oral as well as 
written, resume its sway, with modifica- 
tions. 

I notice objection raised to the multi- 
plicity of examining and inspecting bodies. 
If this indicates a desire to get rid of 
inefficient bodies, I am in sympathy with 

11—2 



150 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



it ; bat if it means that a multiplicity 
of such bodies is not a good thing, I differ 
in Mo. I hear it said that one inspector 
says one thing, another another ; but it is 
exactly because this difference exists that 
a multiplicity of inspecting bodies should 
exist. It is no doubt a nuisance to be 
directed to do this at one time and that at 
another, but a master or mistress can 
always grumble and enjoy the unlimited 



sympathy of his or her colleaguas. It does 
not seriously matter, and surely the 
grievance is nothing, compared to the 
izgury inflicted on education itself by the 
stereotyping that would result from uni- 
fying the various inspecting and examining 
bodies. Every argument that Milton uses 
in the ' Areopagitioa ' against the oensor- 
ship of the Press applies to such unifica- 
tion. 



A TEACHER OP CLASSICS ON TRANSLATION. 



To the June number of our esteemed 
contemporary, the Classical Review, 
Dr. W. H. D. Rouse, whom the 
Modern Language Association is 
proud to count as one of its mem- 
bers, has contributed an article on 
Translation, to which we would 
draw the special attention of our 
readers. This we can best do by 
extracting a few sentences, which 
will suffice to induce all interested 
in the question to read the article ; 
they will be amply repaid. Dr. 
Rouse says : 

*Whon we have learnt how to under- 
stand and to compose in English, and how 
to understand and to compose in Latin, 
we shall be then ready to transfer a literary 
piece from one to the other. 

*The schoolboy is imperfect both in 
English and in foreign languages ; it is 
obvious economy that he should learn and 
practise each of these subjects apart. 

'He is not fit to transfer from one 
language to another anything that he has 
not learnt to understand in both — that is, 
the standard of his translation must be 
within the stage of his knowledge of the 
idioms of both languages. 



'Familiarity with (say) Latin idiom 
cannot be gained by translating it into 
English, only by reading or hearing it in 
Latin. 

* More Latin may be learnt from reading 
a book of Livy than from translating it ; 
and more Latin from reading six books of 
Livy once than from reading one book of 
Livy six times. 

*If we are right in desiring to con- 
centrate attention on one thing at a time, 
and in avoiding breaks of continuity, 
these questions [on the Latin text read] 
and these explanations will all be in 
Latin. 

' The master must not be afraid of talk- 
ing over the heads of his boys ; that is 
the way we learn our own tongue, and, 
if used judiciously, it is most effectiye. 

* For mistaking the sense of a word 
there may be excuse, but there is none for 
nonsense.' 

This should whet our reader's 
appetite. From Dr. Rouse we may 
all learn ; and we do so with all the 
more pleasure as towards the end 
of his article he pays such a grace- 
ful tribute to the work of Modem 
Language teachers. 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHER'S REFERENCE LIBRARY 151 



THE MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHER'S REFERENCE 

LIBRARY. 

Language. 
General. 
W. WUNDT. Volkerpsychologie. I. Die Sprache. (Engelmann, 

Leipzig.) £1 14s. 
B. DELBkUECK. Grundfragen der Sprachforschung. (Triibner, 

Strassburg.) 48. lOd. 
H. PAUL. Prinzipien der Spracbeeschichte. (Niemeyer, Halle.) lOs. 

English translation by H. A. Strong. (Longmans.) 10s. 6d. 
H. A. STRONG, W. S. LOGEMAN, & B. J. WHEELER. Intro- 
duction to the Study of the History of Language. (Longmans.) 

10s. 6d. 
W. D. WHITNEY. Life and Growth of Language. Vol. 16 of the 

International Scientific Series. (Ke^n Paul.) 5s. 
W. D. WHITNEY. Language and its Study. Edited by R. Morris. 

(Kegan Paul.) 5s. 
A. DARMESTETER. La Vie des Mots. (Delagrave, Paris.) 2s. 
K. NYROP. Das Leben der Worter. tJbersetzt von k Vogt. 

(Avenarius, Leipzig.) 4s. 
0. JESPERSEN. Progress in Language. (Sonnenschein.) 7s. 6d. 
H. C. WYLD. Historical Study of the Mother-Tongue. (Murray.) 

6s. 

French. 
Grammar (Modern). 
A. BRACHET & J. DUSSOUCHET. Grammaire fran5aise. 

Revised by Mario Rocques. (Hachette.) 2s. 
L. CL^DAT. Gi-ammaire raisonn^e de la langue fran^aise. 

(Soudier, Paris.) Ss. 
G. C. CLARKE & C. J. MURRAY. School Grammar of Modem 

French. (Dent.) 3s. 6d. net. 
H. W. EVE & F. DE BAUDISS. Wellington College French 

Grammar. (Nutt.) 4s. 6d. 
G. STIER. Franzosische Syntax. (Zwissler, Wolfenbuttel.) 6s. 
A. TOBLER. Vermischte Beitrage zur franzosischen Grammatik. 

(Hirzel, Leipzig.) 3 vols. £1 3s. 6d. 

Grammar (Historical). 

A. DARMESTETER. Cours de Grammaire historique de la Langue 
fran^aise. (Delagrave, Paris.) In four parts : Phon^tique, by 
Muret; Is. 8d. Morpholorie, by Sudre ; Is. 8d. Formation 
des Mots, by Sudre; Is. 8d. Syntaxe, by Sudre; 2s. Trans- 
lated bv A. Hartog. (Macmillan.) 12s. 6d. 

F. BRUNOT. Histoire de la Langue fi-an^aise. (Colin, Paris.) 
2 vols. 12s. each. 

E. NYROP. Grammaire historique de la Langue franfaise. (Harras- 
sowitz, Leipzig.) 8s. each vol. 2 vols, issued ; a third to follow. 

L. CL^AT. Grammaire £l^mentaire de la vieille langue franfaise. 
(Gamier, Paris.) Ss. 



152 MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 

L. CL^DAT. Nouvelle Grammaire Historique du Franfais. (Gamier, 

Paris.) 38. 
A. HAASE. Franzosische Syntax des 17. Jahrhunderto. (Franck, 

Oppeln.) 78. Traiwlated by Mile M. Obert (Picard, Paris.) 

78. 6d 
A. DARMESTETEB & A. HATZFELD. Le 16« 8i^le en France. 

(Delagrave, Paris.) Ss. 
A. BRACKET & P. TOYNBEE. Historical Grammar of the French 

Lan^age. (Clarendon Press.) 7s. 6d. 
A. T. BAKER. Outlines of Historical French Grammar. (Dent.) 

3s. 6d. net. 
W. MEYER-L06KE Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen. (Reia- 

land, Leipzig.) £3 98. Also in French, translated by A. and G. 

Doutrepont. (Welter, Paris.) £3. 
SCHWAN & BEHRENS. Grammatik des Alt-franzosischen. (Reis- 

land, Leipzig.) 6s. Grammaire de Tancien fran^ais. Tiadoit 

par O. Bloch. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 5s. 6d. 
H. SUCHIER. Altfranzosische Grammatik. (Niemeyer, Halle.) 28. 
y. HENRY. Pr^is de Grammaire Compar^e de Tanglais et de 

Tallemand. (Hachette, Paris.) 6s. 3d. Also translated into 

English by author. Comparative Grammar of English and 

German. (Sonnenschein.) vs. 6d. 
M. BR^AL. Essai de S^mantique: science des significations. 

(Hachette.) 3s. 

Idioms, Quotations, Etc. 

DE V. PAYEN-PAYNK French Idioms and Proverbs. (Nutt.) 

38. 6d. 
F. TH^MOIN, French Idiomatic Expressions. (Hachette). 2s. 6d 

net. 
A. MARIETTE. French Idioms and Proverbs. (Hachette.) 3 vols. 

3s. 6d. each. 
PLAN. Selection of French Idioms. Preface by F. F. Roget. (Mac- 

millan.) 3s. 6d. 
J. BU£l. Classbook of Comparative Idioms: English, French, and 

German. (Hachette.) 3 vols. 2s. eacL 
J. STORM. French Dialogues. Translated by G. Macdonald. 

(Macmillan.) 2s. 6d. 
R F0ULCH6-DELB0SC. Echo of Spoken French. (Giegler, 

Leipzig^ 2s. 6d. 

F. FRANKJE Phrases de tous les jours. (Reisland, Leipzig.) lOd. 
S. SU£lS. Exercices pratiques sur les GuUicismes, avec traduction 

allemande en regard. (Burkhardt^ Geneve.) 3s. 
T. B. HARBOTTLE & P. H. DALBIAC. Dictionary of Quotations, 
French and Italian. (Sonnenschein.) 7s. 6d. 

German. 
Grammar (Modern). 

FR. BLATZ. Neuhochdeutsche Grammatik. (Lang, Karlsruhe.) 
2 vols. £1 6s. Also : Schulgrammatik. 6s. 6d. 

G. 0. CURME. German Grammar. (Macmillan.) 15s. net. 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHER'S REFERENCE LIBRARY 153 

H. W. EVE. School German Grammar. (Nutt.) 48. 6d. 

L. StJTTERLIN. Die deutsche Sprache der Gegenwart. (Voigt- 
lander, Leipzdg.) 6s. 

J. C. A. HEYSE. Deutsche Grammatik, Revised by 0. Lyon. 
(Hahn, Hannover.) 5s. 6d. 

0. LYON. Handbuch der deutschen Sprache fiir hohere Schulen. 
(Leipzig, Teubner.) 5s. 3d. 

L. SVTTERLIN. Deutsche Sprachlehre fiir hohere Lehranstalten. 
(Yoigtlander, Leipzig.) 2s. 3d 

O. WEISE. Unsere Muttersprac}ie. (Teubner, Leipzig.) 28. 6d. 

H. G. C. BRANDT. A Grammar of the German Language. (Allyn 
& Bacon, Boston.) 6s. net. 

W. D. WHITNEY. A Compendious German Grammar. (Mac- 
millan.) 48. 6d. 

0. ERDMANN. Grundzuge der deutschen Syntax. (Cotta, Stutt- 
gart^ Vol. I., 38. 6d ; Vol. H. (by 0. Mensing), 68. 6d. 

D. SANDERS. Worterbuch der Hauptschwierigkeiten in der 
deutschen Sprache. (Langenscheidt, Berlin.) 3s. 6d. 

L E. WESSELY. Grammatisch-stilistisches Worterbuch der deut- 
schen Sprache. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 2s. 

W. GRUNOW. Grammatisches Nachschlagebuch. (Grunow, Leipzig.) 
28. 6d. 

H. WUNDERLICH. Unsere Umgan^prache in der Eigenart ihrer 
Satzfiigung darsestellt. (Felber, Weimar.) 48. 6d. 

H. WUNMKLICH. Der deutsche Satzbau. (Cotta Nachf., Stutt- 
jeart.) 9s. 

0. WEISG. Aesthetik der deutschen Sprache. (Teubner, Leipzig.) 
28. lOd. 

0. WEISE. Deutsche Sprach- und Stillehre. (Teubner, Leipzig.) 
2s. 6d. 

K. G. ANDRESEN. Sprachgebrauch und Sprachrichtigkeit im 
Deutschen. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 7s. 

TH. MATTHIAS. Sprachleben und Sprachschaden. (Brandtstetter, 
Leipzig.) 6s. 3d. 

C. WUSTMANN. Allerhand Sprachdummheiten. (Grunow, Leip- 
zig.) 28. 6d. 

0. SCHRODER. Vom papiemen Stil. (Teubner, Leipzig.) 2s. lOd. 

A. HEINTZE. Gut Deutsch. (Regenhardt, Berlin). Is. lOd. 

Grammar (Historical). 
W. WILMANNS. Deutsche Grammatik. (Triibner, Strassburg.) 

3 vols. £1 138. 
0. BRENNER. Grundzii^e der eeschichtlichen Grammatik der 

deutschen Spracha (Lindauer, Miinchen.) 2s. 6d. 
J. WRIGHT. Historical German Grammar: Vol. I. PhonoloCT ; 

Word Formation ; Accidence. (Clarendon Press.) 6s. Vol. II. 

Syntax, by Professor H. G. Fiedler, in preparation. 
O. BEHAGHEL. Die deutsche Sprache. (Freyti^, Leipzig.) 4s. 
H. LICHTENBERGER. Histoire de la Langue Allemande. (Laisney, 

Parish 68. 3d. 
A. WAAG. Bedeutungsentwickelung unseres Wortschatzes. (Schau- 

enburg, Lahr.) 38. 



154 MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 

Idioms, Quotations, Etc. 

KOOP. Dictionary of English Idioms with G^nnan equivalents. 

(Ilachette.) 28. 6(L 
M. TAKER & F. ROGET. German Idioms. (Macmillan.) ds. 6d. 

A. HAMANN. Echo of Spoken German. (Giegler, Leipjdg.) 2s. 6d. 
G. BVCHMANN. Gefliigelte Worte. (Haude & Spener, Berlin.) 

78. 6d. 
H. SCHRADER Der Bilderschmuck der deutschen Sprache. (Felber, 

Weimar.) Ts. 
W. BORCHARDT. Die sprichwortlichen Redensarten im deutschen 

Volksmund. (Brockhaus, Leipzig.) Ts. 
L. DALBIAG. Dictionary of Quotations: German. (Sonnenschein.) 

7s. 6d. 

Phonetics. 
General. 

0. JESPERSEN. Lehrbuch der Phonetik. (Teubner, Leipzig.) 

5s. 6d. 
E. SIEVERS. Grundziige der Phonetik. (Breitkopf & Hartel, 

Leipzig.) 68. 
W. VIETOR. Elemente der Phonetik des Deutschen, Englischen und 

Franzosischen. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 7s. 
ELEMENTS OF PHONETICS: English, French and German. 

Adapted by Walter Rippmann from Professor Vietor's Kleine 

Phonetik. (Dent.) 2s. 6d. net 
M. TRAUTMANN. Die Sprachlaute im AUgemeinen und die Laute des 

Englischen, Deutschen und Franzosischen im Besonderen. (Fock, 

Leipzig.) 88. 
P. PASSY. Phon6tique Compar^e des principales Langues Europ^- 

ennes. (Teubner, Leipzig!) 28. 3d. 
P. PASSY. Etude sur les Changements Phon^tiques. (Firmin Didot, 

Paris.) 68. 8d. 
H. ELINGHARDT. Artikulations- und Horiibungen. (Schulze, 

Cothen.) 58. 6d. 
W. VIETOR Sound Charts. French and German. (Hachette.) 28.64 

net and 28. net respectively. 
W. RIPPMANN. Sound Charts. French and German. (Dent) 

Is. each net. 

French. 

B. DUMVILLE. Elements of French Pronunciation and Diction. 

(Dent.) 28. 6d. net 
P. PASSY. Les Sons du Francais. (Firmin Didot, Paris.) Is. 3d. 
P. PASSY. The Sounds of the French Language. Translated by 

D. L. Savory and D. Jones. (Clarendon Press.) 28. 6d. 
K NYROP. Manuel Phon^tique du Fran9ai8 ParW. (Picard, Paris.) 

38. 6d. 
P. PASSY. Abr^g^ de Prononciation Fran9ai8e. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 

Is. 
K. QUIEHL. Franzdsische Aussprache und Sprachfertigkeit (Elwert 

Marburg.) 58. 9d. 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHER'S REFERENCE UBRARY 155 

L'ABBE ROUSSELOT & F. LACLOTTE. Pr^is de Prononciation 

Fran^se. (Welter, Paris.) 68. 3d. 
A. ZtyND-BURGUET. M^thode Pratique Physiologique et Compar6e 

de Prononciation Fran^aise. (Soudier, Paris.) 2 vols. 38. 
F. BEYER. Franzdsische Phonetik. (Schulze, Cothen.) 58. 6d. 
J. PASSY & A RAMBEAU. Chrestomathie Fran5aise. (Soudier, 

Paris.) 4s. 3d. 
P. PASSY. La Francais Pari^. (Reisland, Leipzig.) 28. 

F. BEYER & P. PASSY. Elementarbuch des gesprochenen Fran- 

zosisch. (Schulze, Cothen.) 2s. 6d. 
E. KOSCHWITZ. Les Pariers Parisiens. (Elwert^ Marburg.) 

38. 6d. 
A. ANDRE. Trait6 de Prononciation Fran9aise et de Diction. 

(Fischbacher, Paris.) 3s. 4d. 
R LEGOUVfi. L'Art de la Lecture. (Hetzel, Paris.) 2s. 6d. 
H. MICHAELIS & P. PASSY. Dictionnaire Phon^tique de la 

Langue Fran9ai8e. (Meyer, Hanover.) 58. 

German. 

W. VIETOR. German Pronunciation, Practice and Theory. (Reis- 
land, Leipzig.) 2s. 

0. BREMER. Deutsche Phonetik. (Breitkopf&Hartel, Leipzig.) 5s. 

W. VIETOR. Deutsches Lesebuch in Lautschrift. (Teubner, 
Leipzig.) Two parts, 3s. each. 

T. SIEBS. Deutsche Biihnenaussprache. (Ahn, Leipzig.) 3s. 3d. 
Also : Grundztige der Biihnenaussprache. 2s. 

G. HEMPL. German Orthography and Phonology. (Trubner, Stras- 

burg.) 98. 
C. H. GRANDGENT. German and English Sounds. (Ginn.) 2s. 6d. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 

Thx ordinary monthly meeting of the exchange of children. It was resolved 

Executive Committee was held at the that for the present year a fee of 5s. shonld 

Collie of Preceptors on Saturday, be asked from English parents effecting 

May SO. an exchange. 

Present : Messrs. Someryille (chair), Three new local Secretaries were ap- 
Mr. Allpress, Miss Batchelor, Messrs. Eve, pointed— viz. : Miss Treneny, Head- 
Fiedler, von Glehn, Kirkman, Milner- mistress-elect of Exeter High School, for 
Barry, Pollard, Rippmann. Miss Shearson, Devon and Cornwall ; Professor Max 
and the Hon. Secretary. Freund, Queen's College, Belfast, for 

The minutes of the last meeting were Ireland ; and Mr. Percy W. Long, Bryn 

read and confirmed. The Hon. Secretary Mawr College, Pennsylvania, for the 

reported that Professor Fiedler, in addition United States. 

to Mr. Savory, would represent the Associa- A sub-committee was appointed to 

tion at the forthcoming meeting of the arrange the details of the annual meeting. 

Neuphilologenverband. The following fourteen new members 

Miss Batchelor, Miss K A. Lawrence, were elected : 

Mr. J. P. Tonkin, and the Hon. Secretary, Miss M. Airey, M.A., The Salt Schools, 

were appointed as a sub-committee for the Shipley. 



156 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



H. R. Chillingwoith, M.A., Emanuel 
School. Wandsworth, 8.W. 

Hugo Hagelin, Ooyemment High 
School, Njkoping. Sweden. 

Mias £. G. Hollom, B. A., Girls' Orammar 
School. Batlej. 

Miss V. H. Kisch, 62, Princes Square, W. 

P. H. Mudd, Grammar School, Chi- 
chester. 

Professor W. I. Sedgefield, M.A., 
Victoria University. 

Miss E. G. Smith, Huddersfield College 
Secondary School. 

Professor P. A. Smith, B.Sc., Normal 
College, Hiroshima, Japan. 

Miss £. G. Tomlins, Lansdowne House, 
Murrayfield, Edinburgh. 

Miss E. L. Trenerry, M.A., High School, 
Exeter. 

Miss C. P. Welbury, Cockbum Secondary 
School, Leeds. 

Miss H. G. Whitton. B.A.. Girls* 
Secondary School. EUand. Yorks. 

W. Winter, German School, Cleveland 
Street, N.E. 



A meeting of the General Committee 
was held at the College of Preceptors on 
Saturday, May 30. 

Present : Messrs. Somerville (chair). 
Messrs. Allpress, Andrews, Miss Batchelor, 
Messrs. Fiedler, von Glehn, Hutton, Kirk- 
man. Miss Lowe, Miss Matthews, Messrs. 
Milner-Barry. Payen-Pftyne, Pollard, Miss 
Pope, Messrs. Rippmann, Robertson, 
Saville, Miss Shearson, Mr. Whyte. and 
the Hon. Secretary. 

Messrs. Atkins, Braunholts, Gregory 
Foster, Norman, SchtLddekopf. Twenty- 
man, and Miss Morley wrote expressing 
regret for inability to attend. 



The resolutions relating to the Modem 
Language Review published in the last 
number of Modern Lanouaob Tkachino 
were then considered, and after a state- 
ment by Professor Robertson and consider- 
able discussion, the first resolution was 
passed in the following form : 

'That the Association will guarantee 
£50 towards the expense of producing the 
Review on condition (a) that members be 
entitled to purchase the Review tot 7s. 6d., 
the published price being not less than 
12s. 6d. ; (h) that the Association be 
entitled to nominate not less than half 
the Committee of Management ; (c) that 
the connexion of the Association with the 
Review be recognized in the Review,* 

The second resolution was dropped. 

The Hon. Secretary stated that £36 had 
been guaranteed by members of the 
Association to meet the proposed guarantee 
of £50. 

The question of the reduction of the 
annual subscription in consequence of the 
above proposed arrangement was then 
considered, and it was resolved that the 
following resolutions should be submitted 
to a Special General Meeting to be held on 
Saturday, June 27 : 

' That the minimum annual subscription 
be 7s. 6d., and that Modern Lanouaoe 
Teaching be supplied post free to members 
who have paid the minimum subscription. 

' That members elected after September 1 
pay one subscription for the remainder of 
the year and the following year.* 

The question of the establishment of an 
examination in modem languages for non- 
specialist teachers was postponed till the 
report of the Training Conunittee had 
been received. 



CONFEBENCES IN CONNEXION WITH THE TRAVELLING 

EXHIBITION. 



The Travelling Exhibition has continued 
its successful journey. We have received 
the following accounts of its visits to 
Sheffield, Leeds, and Birmingham. 
Ik Ik % 



It was a happy idea to utilize the collec- 
tion of books, etc., got together for the 
Annual Meeting of the Modem Language 
Association for the purposes of a travel- 
ling exhibition. In connexion with the 



THE TRAVELLING EXfflBITION 



157 



annual gathering of the local branch of 
the Teachers' Qoild at Sheffield, the 
exhibition was on view for three days at 
the University, and was yisited by a large 
number of teachers in the neighbourhood. 
On Saturday, March 28, Mr. Kirkman — 
who is second to none in his zeal for the 
spread of Modem Languages — gave a 
lecture on 'The Difficulties of Modem 
Language Teaching.' The lecturer very 
properly laid stress on what should be the 
aim of teachers of modem languages — the 
acquirement of a sound vocabulary and 
the ability to use such vocabulary. The 
intuitive method was warmly advocated, 
and many examples of how to use it were 
given. Great weight was also laid on 
the use of grammar and its systematic 
inculcation. Though Mr. Kirkman is, in 
the writer's opinion, somewhat of a heretic 
in matters phonetic, he showed himself no 
less keen than the writer on the question 
of the attention that should be paid to 
accurate pronunciation. 

An interesting discussion ensued on the 
mental processes that take place in the 
pupil's mind in the acquiring of vocabu- 
lary. A very hearty vote of thanks was 
passed to the lecturer for his services, 
rendered at considerable personal incon- 
venience. The teachers present who were 
teaching on the lines Mr. Kirkman 
advocates must have felt encouraged to 
continue in well-doing, and others were 
certainly strongly drawn to adopt his 
counsel. 

Univenity of Sheffield. A. T. Bakir. 

A ti T^ 

The Association's exhibit of text-books 
and apparatus for the teaching of French 
was sent to Birmingham last month (May), 
and was on view at the University for 
just over a week. In connexion witii the 
exhibit two well-attended meetings were 
held, in making the arrangements for 
which the Birmingham Teachers' Associa- 
tion co-operated with the local secretary. 
At the first of these meetings, held on 
May 15, Mr. F. B. Kirkman lectured to 



an audience, numbering about sixty five, 
on ' Controversial Points in Modem 
Language Instmction ' ; while at the 
second, on May 23, a specimen lesson in 
French was given by Mr. A. Bowden, 
King Edward's Orammar School, Five 
Ways, Birmingham, to illustrate the 
results obtainable by oral teaching in 
the case of young pupils. Some eighty- 
five teachers (and others) attended the 
specimen lesson. The numerous questions 
addressed to both Mr. Kirkman and Mr. 
Bowden showed that they had aroused in 
their respective audiences a lively interest 
in the question as to how modem 
languages should be taught, and that 
Birmingham teachers are alive to the 
advantages as well as to the difficulties in 
the way of introducing reformed methods. 

F.E.S. 
Ik A T^ 

The Modern Language Association Ex- 
hibition of Books and Pictures was held 
in Leeds from May 9 to May 16, and Pro- 
fessor Rippmann and Miss Purdie very 
kindly came down to lecture on different 
aspects of Modem Language Teaching. 

Professor Bippmann's lecture on May 9 
was on ' MeUiods of extending the 
Modem Language Learner's Vocabulary.' 
He said that the primary object of Modem 
Language teaching is to give the leamer 
the power of fluent and intelligent readings 
and that this does not necessitate the 
power of translation. In order to read 
intelligently, we must get at the full 
meaning of words, and here Professor Ripp- 
mann quoted instances of the different 
meanings different children will attach to 
the same word, according to their environ- 
ment and general knowledge. In order 
that the pupil may have a dear idea of the 
meaning of the foreign words he usee, it is 
important that a foreign language should 
not be begun too early. In introducing 
the child to a foreign language, great care 
must be taken in the selection of vocabu- 
lary. The mass of words can roughly be 
divided into two main groups— national 
and international. In the second group 



168 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



may be included words expressing relation- 
ships, words of number, colour, etc., and 
with the common foreign terms for these 
international words the child should begin 
his study of the foreign language. At a 
later stage the child should be introduced 
to what is national — characteristic of the 
nation ; for similarities between nations 
should be emphasized before the differences. 
Professor Rippmann gave a note of wani- 
ng against teaching expressions that are 
too colloquial, and emphasized the im- 
portance of acquiring early good habits of 
pronunciation and careful grammar. 

In the intermediate stage the chief 
point to be borne in mind is that of ex- 
tending the vocabulary. This must be 
done in two ways— by association and by 
repetition. Words must be associated by 
their meaning as well as by their form ; 
the pupils must be trained to be alert 
in association— i.«., in guessing. A great 
deal can be done by letting them collect 
words themselves in a classified note-book. 
Professor Rippmann strongly deprecated 
the use of a dictionary or a special 
vooabuLiry. Reading-books should be 
chosen with can*. They should be fairly 
easy, in order that the pupils may read 
easUy ; they should be short, to avoid the 
feeling of weariness in reading a long 
book. In this stage it is more important 
to read much, and to acquire the habit 
of reading quickly, than to read little, 
paying great attention to individual 
points. A library of interesting and 
easy foreign stories for home reading was 
also to be recommended. The printed 
word must at this stage immediately 



suggest the idea. The repetition of words 
is essential. This can be done by ques- 
tions on the text, by grouping of words, 
and by revision of words in the classified 
note-books. 

By the time the last stage is reached, 
the pupils should have acquired the 
power of reading moderately easy French 
rapidly, and here the systematic com- 
parison of the foreign tongue with the 
mother -tongue comes in by means of 
translation. 

On May 16 Miss Purdie gave an 
interesting lecture on ' The Use of 
Modem Methods of teaching French 
and German with a View to training in 
Literary Appreciation.' This lecture 
we hope to see reproduced in another 
issue of Modern Lanouaoe Tbachiko. 

Our heartiest thanks are due to Pro- 
fessor Rippmann and Miss Purdie for 
the kind way in which they helped us 
to make the occasion of the Modem 
Language Association Exhibition a time 
of stimulation to Modem Language 
teachers in the district. They both 
came from London at great personal 
inconvenience, but it is evident that 
their help and sacrifice have been much 
appreciated. The clear exposition of 
the high ideals of Modem Language 
Teaching, and the means by which it 
is possible to approach those ideala, has 
been of great help and encouragement 
to us all. and we offer both of them our 
cordial thanks for their friendly assist- 
ance. 

0. W. Matthews, 

June, 1908. Leeds, 



REVIEWS. 



The Cambridge ffisUfry of English LUeror 
lure. Edited by A. W. Ward, Lit.D., 
and A. R. Waller, M.A. Vol. I. : 
From the Beginnings to the Cycles of 
Romance. Royal 8vo. Pp. xvi-f 504. 
Buckram, 9s. net ; half-morocco, 15s. 
net. (To be completed in 14 vols.) 

It is with real gratitude that we wel- 
come this, the first attempt to compile a 



complete and scholarly history of English 
literature, though we admit that the 
present volume does not altogether satisfy 
tlie high expectations raised by the 
announcement that such a scheme was in 
contemplation by the Syndics of the 
Cambridge University Press. A history 
of EngUsh literature presents many diffi- 



REVIEWS 



159 



calties inherent in the nature of the under- 
taking. The writer of political or consti- 
tutional history, whatever the dangers 
which beset his path, at any rate knows 
where his pitfalls lie — in the absence of 
the necessary documents, in the remote- 
ness of the period with which he deals, in 
the temptation to yield to personal bias, 
and so forth. The literary historian has, 
in addition, to face a peculiar difficulty of 
his own. For a book is no dead thing, 
and at any moment there may arise from 
its pages the spirit of the author, who will 
annihilate all critical theories and learned 
explanations by a simple reference to his 
written word. Edward III. ia dead and 
gone ; we can reconstruct his policy, his 
statesmanship, or his character without 
fear of authoritatiye contradiction, pro- 
vided only that we consult the authorities 
before coming to any conclusion ; but 
Chaucer is still alive to refute us from his 
own mouth, to crush us by the genial, 
satiric laughter that exposes any lack of 
sympathetic insight. From this risk of 
personal encounter — a possibility which 
forms also no small part of the fascina- 
tion of his task—no critic can even desire 
to escape. 

Again, in a literary history, it is exceed- 
ingly difficult so to plan the work that 
due proportion between the various parts 
of the subject and between various authors 
shall . be observed. It \a necessary, for 
instance, to determine whether most stress 
shall be laid on the chief writers, as repre- 
sentative of their respective ages, or on 
the minor people in whose work it is often 
much easier to trace the trend of events 
and the characteristics of the time. 
Finally, the relation between one country 
and another and one literature and 
another must also be taken into account, 
and, at various periods, the amount of 
space allotted to this part of the subject 
will differ very materially. 

These architectural difficulties are 
enormously enhanced when the history is 
divided among several writers, but in the 
case of the Cambridge Literature the 
reader feels no conviction that they have 



been clearly allowed for and estimated. 
The editors have not been sufficiently auto- 
cratic with their contributors : they have 
allowed too haphazard and individual- 
istic a treatment in structural matters 
which could have been ordered without 
undue restriction of the personal inclina- 
tions of the several Mrriters. There is a 
serious lack of continuity in the arrange- 
ment — so serious, indeed, that the volume 
reads rather as a collection of essays than 
as a real attempt at the historical treat- 
ment of literary growth. On the other 
hand, it is an inestimable advantage to 
find each part of the work undertaken by 
specialists, many of whom are enthusiasts 
and the chief authorities on the subject of 
which they treat. Thus, no one has more 
right to deal with the metrical romances 
than Professor Ker, and very few could 
hope to approach his breadth of view and 
scholarship ; Professor Gollancz has made 
the Pearl, Sir Gawayne, Patience and 
Cleanness peculiarly his own ; Dr. Sandys 
is the legislator on all points connected 
with the Latin Literature of England, 
from John of Salisbury to Richard of Bury. 
Indeed, these three chapters, together 
with Mr. Bradley's description of * Changes 
in the Language,' and Professor Lewis 
Jones's treatment of the Arthurian 
Legend, are probably the most valuable in 
the book. On the other hand, the chapter 
on The Anglo-French Law Language, 
admirable as it is in itself, and for the 
special purpose with which it was origin- 
ally compiled, seems out of place in this 
context. Professor Saintsbury's chapter 
on Prosody is too vague and general to be 
of much use to the student, while it 
assumes too great an acquaintance with 
early English poetry on the part of the 
general reader to serve simply as an intro- 
duction to the subject. Professor Atkins is 
happier in the chapter on Early Transition 
English than in that on the Metrical 
Romances, which contrasts very unfavour- 
ably both in judgment and in style with 
the treatment of another part of the sub- 
ject by Professor Ker. In the work of 
Mr. Tliomas and Mr. Westlake we miaa 



160 



MODEBN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



the note of personal ei^'ojment and 
appreciation which doee so mach to make 
the music of literature audible to the 
' general' It maj be hard, nowadays, to 
nnderstand the Togue of the Pastoral Care 
and of other allegorical interpretations. 
Those of us who love our Haklujt have 
no difficulty in r^oicing in the first version 
of Ohthere's Toyage, and we should like 
to feel that Alfred's work had aroused the 
enthusiasm of his critic on other than 
linguistic and historical grounds. 

But whatever the minor defects of this 
first volume of the Cambridge Literature, 
the last word of the reviewer, like the first, 
must be one of gratitude and praise. The 
bibliography alone is of inestimable value 
to all students, and the compilation and 
scheme of the whole book are, in the 
main, well conceived and well carried out. 
We are inclined to apply to the editors 
Dr. Johnson's comment on his Dictionary 



— that they knew very well what they 
were undertaking, and very wbII how to 
do it, and that they have done it very 
welL 

Le Soman <fun Jeune Homme Pantvre: 
Fbuillbt. Edited by J. Laffittb, 
B.-^-L. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 
1907. Price 2s. Pp. viu + 180 (text 
168, Notes 17). 

This charming story, with its delightful 
picture of life in Central Brittany about 
the middle of last century, is a welcome 
addition to the Oxford Modem French 
Series. It should prove an acceptable 
volume in a Fifth Form form-library. 

La Belle au Bote DarmanL By E. C. 
Hainssslin. Blackie. id. 

An easy, simple version of the familiar 
fairy-tale, well suited for very young 
children. The few changes of aoene make 
it convenient for school representation. 



FROM HERE AND THERE. 



Cambridge Univbesity. — The list of 
those whose names appeared in the 
Medieval and Modem Language Tripos 
list may be analysed as follows : 

Men. Women, Total, 

First Class - 2 6 8 

Second Class - 4 12 16 

Third Class - 4 9 18 

10 27 37 

In addition, one man obtained an .Sgrotat 
degree, and one attained the standard 
required of advanced students ; four were 
allowed the ordinary degree, and two were 
excused the general examination. The 
number of complete failures is not recorded. 
We warmly congratulate the women on 
their success, and cannot refrain from ex- 
pressing our regret that the number of 
successful men should be so deplorably 
small. That six (and perhaps more) 
should not have reached the Third Class 
standard after three years' study suggests 
that they either came to the University 
with inadequate equipment, or failed to 



make the most of the excellent oppor- 
tunities afibrded them at Cambridge. 

ti ti T^ 

London University, University 
College. — The John Oliver Hobbes 
Memorial Committee are going to hand 
over a sum to the Treasurer of University 
College for the foundation of a John Oliver 
Hobbes Scholarship in Modem English 
Literature. 

^ 1^ 1^ 

Oxford University.— The honorary 
degree of D.Litt. has been conferred upon 
Professor T. Northcote Toller, M. A. 

1^ 1^ 1^ 

Oxford University.— The Curators of 
the Taylorian Institution will proceed, 
in the course of July, to the election of an 
additional Lecturer in Grerman for the 
Michaelmas Term, 1908. The appoint- 
ment in the first instance will be for three 
years, with the annual stipend of £150, 
inclusive of any fees. 



FROM HERE AND THERE 



161 



OxFOBD TJniveksitt.— At St John's 
CoUege, Leslie 0. Kirk, of King 
Henry VIII. School, Sheffield, has been 
elected to an Exhibition in Modem Lan- 
goages. 

T^ A A 

Oxford TJnivbrsity.— The results of 
the last examination in the Honour School 
of Modem Languages may be analysed as 
follows (F- French, 0= German, S= 
Spanish): 

Men, Women, Total, 
Class L ... IG 2G 8G 

Class IL ... — 2 F. 1 G 2 F, 1 G 
Q^IIT r2F,lG, 2F,1G 4F,2G. 
uiaasiii.^ IS IS 

Class IV... IF — IF 



3F,2G, 4F, 4G 7F.6G, 
IS IS 

The following are the results in the 
Honour School of English Language and 
Literature: 

Men. Women, Total, 

Class L ... 1 4 5 

Class IL... 5 7 12 

Class IIL... 4 15 

Class lY.... 2 18 



12 



18 
AAA 



25 



Mr. J. H. Fowleb's valuable paper on 
* English Literature in Secondary Schools,' 
read before the English Association 
(January 11), is now published as one of 
the Association's leaflets (No. 5). 

1^ 1^ 1^ 

Mr. H. Lonsdale, B.A., has been ap- 
pointed French Master at Maidenhead 
Modem School. 

^ 1^ 1^ 

Mr. G. Price Williams, M.A., Ph.D., 
Assistant-Lecturer in German at Liverpool 
University, has been appointed to a Junior 
Inspectorship under the Board of Educa- 
tion. Mr. Williams graduated with First 
Class Honours in English Language and 
Literature in the University of Wales. 

^ 1^ 1^ 

Through the generosity of a prominent 
Manchester citizen, and in order to en- 
oourage research requiring a knowledge of 



Russian, a travelling studentship, tenable 
for two years, is to be offered to students 
of the University of Manchester or of other 
Universities. The studentship will be of 
the value of £40 for the first year, and of 
£125 for the second year, and residence in 
Russia will be a condition of the appoint- 
ment. 

1^ 1^ 1^ 

Resolutions regarding the position of 
modem languages in Scottish schools and 
Universities have been prepared by a 
special committee of the Scottish Modem 
Languages Association, and will be sub- 
mitted for approval at a meeting of the 
Association. The motion that the resolu- 
tions be formally adopted by the Associa- 
tion will be moved by Dr. Schlapp 
Edinburgh University. It is urged that 
the intermediate curriculum should allow 
local freedom for the starting of three 
lauguages other than English before its 
close, by relieving the special linguistic 
pupils fh>m the third year's sdenoe and 
drawing, in whole or part, and that the 
junior student curriculum should admit of 
modification in the case of linguistic 
pupils. With regard to the leaving cer- 
tificates, it is desired that pupils who take 
two modem languages for this certificate 
should not require to take Latin as an 
additional subject. The preliminary 
examinations, it is urged, should be 
identical with the leaving certificates 
examination in standard, and where pos- 
sible in examination papers. It is also 
desired that in the preliminary examina- 
tion a classical language should no longer 
be compulsory, and that students from the 
modem sides of schools should be admitted 
to the Universities on equal terms with 
those from the classical side. Other 
principal heads of the resolutions are: 
That in the degree of five subjects to be 
provided by the new ordinances, no pre- 
ference should be given any subject ; that 
the honours degree should be awarded in 
single subjects ; that if the scheme for a 
three-term session is adopted, special 
arrangements be made for modem language 
students, so that they may have the 



162 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACfflNG 



option of spending the summer tenn 
abroad ; and that the leotnreshipe in 
modern languages be raised into Chairs. 
The resolutions deal also with a variety of 
other subjects, including travelling grants 
and scholarshipe, tutorial instruction, and 
provision for the training of secondary 
teachers in French and German. 
3^ 3^ 3^ 
The Morning Past of Friday, May 29, 
had a column article on 'Modem Lan- 
guages in Secondary Schools,' in which 
repeated reference was made to the Associa- 
tion's recent Report on the Ck>nditions of 
Modem Language Teaching. The writer 
deplores the neglect of German— ('It is 
unfortunate that German should occupy 
the place of Cinderella in Modem Lan- 
guage Teaching. . . . One wonders what 
Matthew Amold would have thought of 
postponing Goethe to Racine ') — and then 
deals with *the curse of economy,' re- 
ferring to low salaries, large classes, and 
long teaching hours. The Morning Post is 
the first of our daily papers in the atten- 
tion it devotes to educational problems, 



and we are gratefhl to it for the support it 
ungmdgingly gives to all earnest efforts 
for improving the status of the Modem 
Language teacher and the oonditions in 
which he carries on his arduous work. 

Ik Ik Ik 

By mistake we stated in our last number 
that Miss Purdie had been appointed 
Headmistress of the Sydenham High 
School, instead of the Sydenham Secondary 
School (Sydenham Hill Road. S.E.) ; and 
we apologize to Biiss Sheldon, Head- 
mistress of the High School, regretting 
any inconvenience the misstatement may 
have caused. 

% % % 

Une jeune fille fran9alse, bien ^lev^, 
dipldm^, ^l^ve d'une ^cole normale, 
d^ire une place a% pair dans une famiUe 
anglaise pour la dur^ des vacances d'^t6 
k partir du 14 juillet au 19 ou an 30 sep* 
tembre. La jeune fille n'lrait que dans le 
sud de TAngleterre, de preference au bord 
de la mer. R^fi^rences : Mile Simiand, 
professeur, 13 Boulevard Ed. Rey, 
Grenoble. 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



Journal of Education, June, 1908 : 
TheTrae Meaning of ' Free School ' (A. F. 
Leach) ; A Hint on the Reading of Verse 
(T. S. Omond). 

School World, June, 1908: A Uni- 
fied Curriculum of Primary Instruction 
(J. Oliphant); The Teaching of the 
Mother-Tongue in Sweden ; Literature in 
^^- ' the Scjxools (J. E. Barton). 
^; '^^ Educational Times, June, 1908 : 

^ School Life and Healthy Growth (H. E. J. 

? Bio. Bisblrr T^ ^l\P9l System of Mannheim 
006 W£ST(l0^^ft.es8Und),N . 
<V »-HSchool7 J^rt^r'8 : The Continuation 

^:^^Ul fi^'i^^i^f^^^i!^^ Eerschensteiner). 

^"■^ - iWu "^tSachers* Guild Quarterly, 
June, 1908 : Dante's 'Commedia' and its 
Main Teachings (H. B. Garrod). 



Die Neueren Sprachek, May, 1908 : 
L'enseignement du fran9ais en AUemagne 
ju^ par un professeur fran9ais de TUni- 
versit^ (P, Foulon). 

Les Lanoues Modernes, May, 1908 : 
De la Lecture Particuli^re et de la Crea- 
tion d'une Biblioth^ue de Languos 
Vivantes dans les Lyc^es (E. Wendling) ; 
Le Devoir ^rit et la M^thode directe 
(A. Novel). June, 1908 : Les Ungues 
vivantes dans l'enseignement primaire 
N. Euhn) ; Les Assistants Strangers et 
r^hange des Professeurs; Society inter- 
nationale des ISooles Berlitz. 

Bolletino di Filoloola Moderna, 
April, 1908: II carattere di Swift (T. 
Lerario) ; I corsi estivi di Grenoble (R. 
d' Elia) ; 0>me possiamo migliorare il 
nostro metodo d' insegnamento (G. Benzi). 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH TBB ASSISTilNCB OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A. A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUMB IV. No. 6 



OCTOBBR. 1908 



DISCUSSION COLUMN. 

WHAT IS THE BEST METHOD OF PUBLIC EXAMINATION AND 
INSPECTION ? 



This discussion terminates in the 
present number. The very valu- 
able contributions that have been 
made to it will prove of great 
service to the sub-committee that 
has been appointed to consider the 
question of examination and in- 
spection as they affect modem 
language teaching. The conclu- 
sions of the sub-committee, subject 
to amendment by the parent com- 
mittee, will be submitted to the 
next General Meeting for final dis- 
cussion and approval. Steps will 
then be taken to try and get the 
desired reforms realized. 



Mb. E. 0. Kittson 

{BoUon Orammar Selufol), 

It does not strike me as a very easy thing 
to comply with the request to express 
my views on examination and inspection. 



For a man's views on examination and 
inspection must of necessity depend on his 
attitude towards education generally, on 
the answer he would give to the question. 
What IB the object of education ? Properly 
speaking, then, one should answer this 
question first. It is not a very easy 
question to answer. There are people — 
sensible i)eop]e— who believe that the end 
and aim of education is to prepare boys to 
succeed in commerce ; others — foolish 
dreamers ! — ^imagine that schools should 
be little centres of culture and enlighten- 
ment, teaching youths to love the things 
of the mind above everything else. 
Wherever the assistant master may come 
to anchor between these extreme positions 
does not much matter, fortunately; no- 
body is going to worry much about his 
opinions,— supposing him to be sufficiently 
audacious to form any. But although he 
will be readily excused from meddling 
with questions like these, there is one 
matter from which he cannot escape : he 
must adopt some definite attitude towards 
his own daily work. About this he must 
have views, even though he should never 

12 



164 



MODERN ULNOUAOE TEACHINO 



hATa fonnalAted thtm. Indeed, it would 
be no eMj thing to fonnulato one's Tiewi 
on suoh a point ; bat if the matter ooold 
be pat in a phrase, it might be said of the 
modem literature master that he loves his 
sabjeot, and seeks to make his pupils love 
it too. 

This, then, being the object he sets 
before himself, examinations and inspec- 
tions interest him only in so far as thej 
help him to achieye it. 

Speaking for myself, I don't think 
examinations help me at all ; they are 
merely distractions ; and coming mostly 
in a questionable shape, they are un- 
welcome distractions. 

It appears, howcTer, that some examina- 
tions are necestary : a Leaving Certifiuate 
examination is necessary, and also, as 
things are at present, a less adranced ex- 
amination, taking in boys who leave 
school earlier, and covering some of the 
easier professional preliminaries. 

What form should these examinations 
take, as far as modem languages are 
ooncemed? To express my opinions as 
briefly as possible, I think they should 
invariably include an oral examination, 
dictation, and free composition. It would 
probably be advisable to add translation 
from the foreign language into English. 

I fully agree with the spirit of Mr. 
Bridge's suggestion in the last paragraph 
of his contribution, with regard to set 
books ; but while I have always been 
eager to read as much literature as possible 
with my classes, I should not like other 
people to choose my literature for me. 
Better have no literature at all read than 
that the picture which presents itself to 
my imagination should be realized of a 
very sad teacher reading Bossuot with 
a very sad class. Here we find ourselves 
face to face with the old difficulty that 
there is no connection between the ex- 
amining body and the school. It is 
evident that no step forward could be 
made in this matter until we were sure 
of having enlightened examining bodies. 
The ideal solution would probably be that 
the school should subnut its course of 



reading to be approved of by the examin 
Failing that, perhaps an eztenaiv« list of 
approved authors ooald be drawn np from 
whioh the teacher would be allowwl to 
select. But if boys are to be examined in 
literature, I think this ooold best be dons 
in the oral examination, or in the free 
composition, a point to whioh I shall 
rotura presently. 

N(4king i$ mare eertam tktm thai n- 
aminatunu ajf%d the UoMmg; and sinoe I 
hold that in teaching a boy to oomposa in 
the foreign language we are working on 
right lines, I should be very sorry that 
translation into the foreign langoage should 
ever be insisted on. I see no reason what- 
ever why we should change our views onoe 
more about free composition. Itisoljaoted 
against it, amongst other things, that it is 
not a sufficient test, since it allows the 
candidate to avoid the difficultiea of the 
language ; but it seems to me that this 
freedom to choose one's words and oon- 
stractions is one of the natural conditions 
of using the language ; we have that free- 
dom in writing our own language ; and I 
am taking full advantage of it in trying to 
express my ideas in this article. I hold 
this to be one of the most important parts 
of linguistic training. I think it is a 
splendid thing for a boy to have to think 
out for himself whether he will write, 
Apris avoir fait eela, AyctnU fail eela, Dk$ 
qu*U etU fait eela^ or whatever other ways 
he could say tlie same thing, for it is just 
this freedom to build up his period fh>m 
beginning to end in his own way that will 
render it possible for him ever to attain 
to anything like a well-balanoed prose 
style ; just as the absence of it renders 
translations almost invariably stiff and 
unnatural. A candidate's composition 
will thus be good in proportion as he is 
familiar with all the twists and turns of 
the language, and has studied good models. 
If, on the other hand, he is ignorant of 
the constractions of the language, his 
production will bear the marks of it ; it 
will be stiff and scant, showing no variety 
of constraction ; the subjunctive mood 
will probably be altogether absent; in 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



165 



short, it will be like the English oomposi- 
tion of the little boy in Form I., in which 
the ooignnction and is so onielly over- 
worked. 

On the difficulties of marking free com- 
positions I shall not dwell, for I understand 
we are dealing with qualifying, not com- 
petitiye, examinations. 

Another argument advanced against free 
composition is that one candidate will 
know more about the subject than another, 
and thus gain an unfair advantage. The 
same is true, of course, of English composi- 
tion. I am inclined to think he deserves 
the advantage ; if the subject has been 
rightly chosen, he certainly deserves it. 
I should even go further, and say that 
the subject should be taken from French 
literature or French history, and that the 
candidate should be given to understand 
that he was expected to know something 
about it. If a sufficient variety of subjects 
were set, this plan would not interfere 
with the freedom of the teacher, and it 
would stimulate the pupils to learn all 
they could about French history and 
French thought. As schools and examin- 
ing bodies improve, it might be possible 
to set fairly definite courses of study, even. 
I know it will be objected that this may 
lead to 'cram'; but if free composition 
can lend itself to ' cram,' which I doubt, 
it might be as well to be ' cranuning ' the 
Age of Louis XIV., or the Life of Moli^re. 
as a Day in the Country. At any rate, 
the objection to free composition which I 
have quoted at the beginning of this 
paragraph is not a sound one, for it is an 
impossible attempt to separate form and 
matter. Nobody ever wrote well on any 
subject, unless he knew something about 
it and was interested in it. To quote 
Buffon, whom we have just been reading 
in class, Les idUs seulea farmerU le fond 
du ttyU. 

The chief difficulty about the oral 
examination seems to be to hit on a 
good device to make the candidate speak. 
Well, supposing the examiner to be a 
iSsirly human person, I say at once that if 
a candidate comes before him and plays 



the dummy, then that candidate does not 
pass his examination, and the sooner this 
becomes generally known, the better. If, 
after all our conversational methods, a 
boy can't find anything to talk about, 
then it seems to me certain that he does 
not deserve to pass any oral examination ; 
for either he can speak but won't, or he 
would speak but can't ; if he can't — ^well, 
he can't ; and if he won't, then he has 
not been taught what every school should 
tesch its pupils in some part of its 
curriculum, that a human being who does 
not know how to fall into pleasant con- 
verse with those about him is only 
partially civilized. When we hear a 
conscientious examiner lamenting that he 
cannot make his candidates talk, we must 
not assume that the fault is his ; the 
candidates may be ignorant of the lan- 
guage. Still, I think there may be a 
real difficulty. I am inclined to suspect 
that the oral examination, as at present 
conducted, may be a very unreal affair. 
We must remember that conversation for 
conversation's sake is unnatural ; a human 
being is only impelled to speak in so far 
as he has ideas which he wishes to express. 
For this reason I quite agree with 
Mr. Brigstocke, that it ia not reasonable 
to give a boy a picture and ask him to 
hold forth on the subject of it. On the 
other hand. I notice that he has found 
explaining new words in the foreign lan- 
guage a good way of drawing a boy into 
conversation ; and I believe the reason for 
that is that it gives the boy something 
definite to think about, it sets his mind 
at work. 

I suppose we have all remarked in our 
class-work that those questions are always 
answered best and most naturally which 
require some thought. It is for this 
reason that I believe boys should be 
examined orally on some definite subject, 
say, the classical authors they have been 
reading in class; and they should be 
marked not only for their ' conversation,' 
Imt also/or their knowledge qf the mttject. 
The consciousness of this fiMst would spur 
them on to display their knowledge before 

12—2 



166 



MODERN LANOUAOE TEACHINO 



tlie examiner, to then wonld be a ehasoe 
of getting eome real natural talk ; and it 
would go a long way towardi deetroying 
the nnreal atmoephere of the intenriew by 
allowing the examiner to aaeome that 
ieyere attitude which becomee him beet 
At the aame time he would find many 
opportunitiea of wandering on to lighter 
topics, if he were so minded. Examiners 
in other subjects have been known to 
unbend, and even to become remimscent. 
But the fundamental relations should 
honestly be thoee of examiner and 
examinee. At present the examiner has 
to stoop to that peculiar kind of hypocrisy 
that we assume when we talk about the 
weather to people whom we do not lore. 

(I do not mean to imply that boys, 
especially junior boys, should not be 
encouraged to talk about the weather, 
or about anything cIk they please, in 
class ; but this is an altogether different 
thing from an examination which aims at 
testing the degree of culture to which a 
candidate has attained in his modem 
literary studies.) 

A boy going to an oral examination at 
present ib like a demi-semi-intelligent 
person going to a dinner-party : he has a 
few things pre-conceived in his mind 
which he means to say, if he can ; if he 
. can't, he must only try to look intelli- 
gent, and do his best. This kind of thing 
tends neither to moral nor intellectual 
sincerity. 

If, on the other hand, you examine a 
boy on what he has been studying in class 
you knock the GhUen-morgen-fnein-Eerr* 
wie-gekL-^'IKnen-heute attitude on the 
head at once ; by putting definite questions 
you bring him to his sensee, that is, you 
make him think. Question him on some 
subject worthy of bis respect ; let interest 
and intelligence accompany his answers. 
Ask him what authors he has been read- 
ing, and what he thinks of them, and 
what he has learnt from them. Don't 
offend his intelligence by asking him to 
talk twaddle; of the two kinds of con- 
versation, let us encourage that kind 
which is an exchange of thought. 



As for the inspector, if ha knows modem 
languages. If he knows how to teach them, 
and if he has a real sympathy with ednea- 
tion, then he may, in visiting a aehool, 
bring with him light and encouragement ; 
but if he lacks these qoalities, or any of 
them, his visit will not be helpftil, and 
there will be no welcome before him. 

XL 

Mr. J. 0. Ahdibbok. 

In dealingwiththe various points of the 
syllabus, I propose to state very briefly, 
and without attempting to develop, the 
conclusions at which I have arrived from 
actual experience. 

1. A variety of examining bodies is 
not necessarily an evil, and i% indeed, a 
necessity, owing to the different needs of 
different areas, and to the various ideals 
of various types of schools. It is hi, My 
undesirable, however, that a school^ espe- 
cially a small one, generally under-staffed, 
should have pupils of the same standard 
preparing for different and dissimilar 
examinations. A school-leaving or similar 
examination should in most cases exempt 
from further examination in the same 
subjects when the pupil enters any of 
the profeesions, and such school-leaving 
examination should be accepted as an 
equivalent by similar examining bodies. 
The principle of interchangeable entrance 
examinations, already adopted by the 
Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and 
London, should be extended. 

2. The examining body should not 
merely test the amount and quality of 
the knowledge in any subject, but also, 
to a certain extent, how it is obtained. 
While an examining body should not, by 
the character of its papers, impose any 
particular method to the exclusion of all 
others, it should certainly aim at in- 
fluencing the teaching in the direction of 
better methods, and at discountenancing 
useless ' cram.' At the same time^ it is 
just as well to recognize that there is no 
type of question which the crammer will 
not attempt to ' cram,* and if the informa- 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



167 



tion IB importont it is a gain. In a reoent 
oontribntion to this diaounion Mr. Samson 
mentions phonetic transcript and the 
framing of questions and answers as 
' cram ' questions. I have marked many 
hundreds of answers to both, and I admit 
that apparently a number of candidates 
did 'cram' phonetics. In my opinion, 
that was a decided advantage, even if it 
did nothing more than draw attention to 
some facts in connection with French pro- 
nunciation, such as the differences of 
vowel sound in peu and peupU^ pcu and 
paiUf or even in sons and sans. Unfor- 
tunately, there are many well<known 
French teachers who make no distinction 
even in the last pair of words ; and quite 
recently a 'cramming' publication, in 
giving the answer to a London University 
question in phonetics, made a terrible 
howler of this kind. By assigning marks 
mainly to the niceties and difficulties of 
French sounds, the evils of cramming are 
partly avoided. With regard to the 
framing of questions and answers, I will 
merely say that I have not yet met with 
a fully correct answer, and not more than 
2 per cent, could be called good; from 
which it may plainly be deduced that the 
crammer has not yet got the best of this 
type of question, even after nearly four 
years' experience. Anyhow, the range of 
questions on such papers should be wide 
enough to embrace all recognized methods. 
There is no necessity for alternative 
papers ; a few alternative questions would 
suffioe. Indeed, an intelligent candidate, 
if well taught by any method, should be 
able to answer questions in whatever form 
they may appear. 

8. The testing of work done at the 
various stages of school study, except the 
final, should be left chiefly to the teachers 
— at least, so far as written work is con- 
cerned. Occasional inspection or oral 
examination by an outsider might be used 
to prevent slackness. Such examinations 
as the Preliminaiy and Junior Locals 
must, on the whole, be condemned, par- 
ticularly in their present form. 

4. There would seem to be no more 



perfect test of ability to understand the 
written language than translation. No 
other test is so certain, but its value is 
only in proportion to the ability of the 
pupil to express himself in his native 
tongue, and in the case of the English 
pupil this power ia very small ; therefore 
in the earlier stages it is better, for this 
reason alone (there are others), to use it 
but sparingly. The knowledge can be 
tested in many other ways more or less 
satisfactory— by question and answer, by 
a change of tense, etc. 

5. I can find no really better test of 
power to write the foreign language than 
translation into that language. Free com- 
position I would place next, and after 
that, but a long way behind, and only as 
a help, dictation. Continuous English 
prose IB better than detached sentences if 
the matter is simple narrative, or well 
within the grasp of the pupil's intelli- 
gence. Detached sentences have a ten- 
dency to become a test for conversational 
idiom. Free composition is not at present 
a very good test, owing to the fact that 
the average English pupil is unable to 
compose. He has few ideas, and his 
meagre stock he cannot arrange logically. 
This being so, a skeleton — the French 
narration — ^would appear to be most suit- 
able, for the chief aim is to test power of 
expression in the foreign language, and 
not composition and thought, which are 
best tested by an essay in the native 
tongue. Dictation cannot be placed high 
as a test of ability to write the language. 
It is primarily a test of eye and ear, and 
of ability to understand, coupled with a 
grammatical knowledge of the language. 
It is a valuable test of the critical faculty, 
and of the power of observation. It is 
possible to find out a candidate's know- 
ledge of the grammar without resorting to 
separate grammar questions. In any case, 
direct questions should be avoided as 
much as possible, because they favour 
cramming. Such questions can be well 
answered without any real knowledge of 
the language, although, of course, the 
knowledge tested in (a) is very important. 



168 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



and can only be obtained by a systematio 
stody of the grammar. 

6 and 7. I would reverse the order of 
theee, and say that ability to understand 
the spoken language must precede the 
ability to speak it ; but in testing they 
are interdependent, and in practice it is 
hardly poesible to separate thenu To 
be complete, the test should be varied. 
Dictation tests ability to understand only 
very incompletely, because it is read 
slowly, and a candidate might make a 
very fair show in dictation who could not 
follow a conversation. Conversation on 
general topics is not very satisfactory if 
you travel outside one or two well-beaten 
tracks. The English pupil's range is very 
limited. Pictures are suitable chiefly for 
beginners. On the whole, conversation 
based on a set book is to be preferred; 
and if the examiner has read the book it 
is quite easy to detect the weak candidate 
who has been 'crammed.' An unseen 
passage read by the examiner (not by the 
candidate) is a very useful test if ques- 
tions are asked on it, or if the candidate 
is expected to reproduce it It should 
not, however, be too long, which would 
give mere memory an unfair advantage. 

8. Pronunciation will have been already 
gauged by the tests in 6 and 7, but I 
think a reading test is absolutely neces- 
sary. It is a better test for pronunciation 
merely than conversation, because in the 
latter the candidate uses phrases with 
which he is very familiar, and in which 
he has acquired a certain correctness and 
fluency ; whereas in reading he is com- 
pelled to be more deliberate and exact 
when he meets long and unusual words. 
I have met candidates who in conversation 
seemed to pronounce fairly well, and 
whose reading was very poor. Reading 
also tests to a certain extent whether the 
candidate understands without mental 
translation — in short, whether he thinks 
in French. 

9. I think that in the higher forms of a 
school the proportion of marks assigned 
to the written and oral examinations, if 
tiie latter is thorough and includes dic- 



tation, should be 2 : 1 (in the lowest forms 
1:2); but at least ten to fifteen minutes, 
exclusive of dictation, should be devoted 
to each candidate. The following per- 
centages might be assigned to each 
constituent part of the examination : 

Fereent. 

1. Translation from the foreign 

language 25 

2. Translation into the foreign 

language 20 

8. Free composition 10 

4. Grammar 12 

5. Dictation 10 

6. Beading 8 

7. Conversation-!®" *". 

(expression ... 10 

If grammar is omitted, I would divide 
the marks among 2, 8, and 7. If 8 is 
alternative to 2, 1 would give the united 
percentages to each. 

10 and 11. That both examiners and 
inspectors should have great experience in 
teaching is a sine qua non. Sympathetic 
help and advice, rather than fault-finding 
criticism, should be their chief aim. More 
oral examination, and less written ex- 
amination and inspection of the old type, 
would benefit greatly liodem Language 
teaching. 

XII. 

Walter Rippmakk. 

To express and fully to substantiate my 
views on the many points of discussion 
raised by Mr. Kirkman in his introductoiy 
note on p. 58 would require much more 
space than as editor I am willing to allow 
myself. I will strive to be brief. 

The existing multiplicity of examining 
and inspecting bodies oonducea to effi- 
ciency, inasmuch as they are constantiy 
comparing their work, and having it com- 
pared for them, by kindly and unkindly, 
by competent and ignorant, critics. This 
leads to wholesome rivalry, and in the end 
to improvement all round. The number 
of inspecting bodies is not large. Apart 
from the Board of Education, the inspect- 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



169 



ing body should be a UiiiTerdty, and the 
inspected schools should, as a rule, be 
within the sphere of its influence. A 
University has a real interest in the right 
education of those who are going to 
become its members. I do not think it 
well for a school to be exposed to inspec- 
tion from more than two quarters ; and I 
believe in time more co-operation than at 
present will be possible between the Board 
and the inspecting University. 

If it is asked how often the inspection 
should take place, I must confine myself 
to the question of the inspecting Univer- 
sity, and draw upon my experience as 
staff inspector of the University of London. 
I may be allowed to give some account of 
the way in which this University tests the 
work of a number of Surrey schools. A 
full inspection of each school takes place 
once in four years. The Report consists of 
two parts — one general, for publication (if 
desired) ; the other an appendix for the 
special use of the Principal and, if deemed 
advisable, the staff. Every year, in July, 
the school enters candidates for the School 
Examinations of Matriculation and Junior 
Standard. The staff set papers for the 
remaining pupils of the upper and middle 
forms, and these papers are submitted to 
the inspectors, who are free to suggest 
changes. The answers of the pupils, after 
correction by the staff, are sent to the 
inspectors for review. If the Principal 
desires it, there is also an oral examination 
of the lowest forms by the inspectors. A 
report is based upon the reports of the 
Matriculation and Junior Examiners and 
the inspectors ; and this also is issued in 
two parts, the main report only being for 
publication. It is evident that in this 
way the University gains a thorough in- 
sight into the educational work of these 
schools. 

The Junior Examination is based on a 
syllabus, to the general outlines of which 
tiie Principals of the schools concerned 
have agreed ; but variations («.^., in the 
periods selected in history) are frequent, 



and wherever it is necessary, special 
papers are set. I must confine myself, 
however, to the examination in French 
and German, where the same papers are 
taken by all schools. 

As to the desirability of a test for pupils 
at the age of fifteen, opinions differ. I 
am inclined to think that most teachers 
now welcome such a test, if it leaves them 
freedom in their teaching. If it means 
the cramming of set books, it may com- 
mend itself to the weak teacher ; but the 
good tescher resents such a restraint. The 
chief reason why the Junior Examination 
is welcomed is because it affords a valuable 
stimulus to the pupils and a useful criterion 
of the teacher's work. The examiner has 
a knowledge of what is achieved in schools 
of the same type, and is therefore able to 
judge the success of the teaching far better 
than the teacher, whose outlook is neces- 
sarily more confined. 

Beaders of Mods&n Languaob Tsaoh- 
INO have had opportunities of considering 
the London Junior papers. I venture to 
say that every boy or girl of fifteen who 
has been taught French or German for 
three years ought to possess the know- 
ledge required to answer these papers suc- 
cessfully, and that any method which 
does not insure this stands condemned. 
The only critidam that has been directed 
against the papers (as far as I know) is 
that there should be included a test of 
translation from English. Accordingly, 
on one occasion an optional, very simple 
passage for translation was set as an 
additional paper. The results were what 
1 had anticipated— not one in twenty pro- 
duced a tolerable rendering. On the 
other hand, it is gratifying to find that 
the veiy simple subjects set for free com- 
position are being handled with growing 
success every year. 

The London Matriculation Examination 
is too weU known to need description. 
For obvious reasons the standard and 
general style must be the same for the 
School Matriculation as for the External. 
I am not satisfied that the French and 



170 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Ctomuui papers are the beet poeiible. For 
the pnrpoeee of Matriculation, I consider 
the power to read more important than 
anything else; and I should omit the 
grammar section altogether, leaving this 
to be tested by the composition and the 
oral examination. I beliere a Matricula- 
tion paper* should consist of— 

(1) Four passages for translation, in- 
cluding one in fairly hard prose and 
one in verse ; the candidates to choose 
three, it being understood that higher 
marks are obtainable for the hard prose 
passage. 

(2) Subjects for free composition — 
(a) About 150 words to be written on one 
of several easy subjects ; {b) about 300 
words to be written on one of several 
harder subjects. Or (as an alternative) 
two passages for translation into French 
— (a) short and easy ; (b) harder and 
longer. The candidates to choose (a) or 
(6), it being understood that higher marks 
are obtainable for (6). 

The pass standard could then be raised ; 
at present, in most examinations of this 
kind, it is too low. I cannot help think- 
ing it is better to insist on a 50 per cent, 
qualifying mark in an easier paper than on 
30 per cent, in a more difficult one.f Good 
candidates aspiring to honours would 
naturally choose the harder parts of the 
paper. 

It is needless to enlarge on the im- 
portance of the oral test ; it has always 
been compulsory in the case of the London 
school examinations. Our method is to 
have a dictation, the passage being chosen 
by the examiner, but given out by the 
pupils' ordinary teacher in the presence 
of the examiner. The pupils are then 
examined individually. I prefer to take 



* I am suggesting what seems feasible 
at present, not what may be possible in 
ten years* time. 

t I notice the same remark in the 
School World for September, in an excel- 
lent article on 'Ob-operation between 
Examiners and Teachers of Latin,* by 
Mr. W. H. S. Jones. 



two oral examinees at the same time : 
while one is being examined the other is 
picking out a passage to read to me or 
selecting a picture to describe, and this 
makes him or her a little more oomfort- 
able. The reading of a passage is an 
essential ; the experienced examiner leama 
from it much as to the pupil's pronnncis^ 
tion, intonation, etc In tiie oonveraatioa 
which follows, the examiner's attention 
can then be directed mainly to the pupil's 
use of words and knowledge of grammar. 
The passage to be read aloud had better 
be taken from a book the pupQ has 
recently read, as an unseen passage may 
add to his nervousness and interfere witii 
his pronunciation. The conversation need 
be of no particular type ; sometimes an 
idea may be taken up from the reading, or 
a picture may be discussed, or some general 
topic. Much will depend on the circum- 
stances, and any rigid rule would here be 
a mistake. Ohoose the examiners with 
care, and you can trust them to choose 
suitable matter for conversation. 

' The question whether an examining 
body has any right to impose, by the 
character of the papers it sets, any par- 
ticular method of teaching upon the 
schools is an interesting one. I should 
express the point rather diflferently : How 
far should examiners take into account 
the way in which their papers will react 
upon the teaching ? I believe they ought 
to do so to a much greater extent than 
seems the rule. Thus, the setting of 
questions on crude grammar (" Give the 
third person singular of pre/ndre^** etc, to 
quote one of Mr. Eirkman's examples on 
p. 59) will lead to the memorizing of 
crude grammar, which we are now agreed 
is bad ; and the setting of questions on 
applied grammar will lead teachers to 
practise their pupils in applied grammar, 
which is a very good thing. In this 
respect our Modem Language papers in 
general have shown a most gratifying 
improvement in recent years, but our 
classical colleagues have a good deal of 
headway to make up in this respect. The 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



171 



gnunmar lectioiiB of the Matriculation 
papers in Latin and Greek make me sad. 

Of ooniae, a teacher who has found his 
pnpils Tery shaky, say, in the oonjugation 
of common French verba will give them 
some extra drill, and may set them a ' cmdo 
grammar ' test paper ; bnt we are here 
dealing ezoluaiTely with public examina- 
tion papers. 

Another part of the examinations which 
reacts on Uie teaching is the passage for 
translation. There was a yery justifiable 
oatcry some time ago against the set book, 
and the set book is gradually losing in 
favour. Unseen translation has taken its 
place, but the results have not always 
been quite satisfactory. Many * Matricu- 
lation classes' in French and German 
never read any complete text nowadays ; 
they never come into contact with litera- 
tore except in snippets. Think of these 
classes spending half-hours with the best 
authors I As though you could come to 
know an author in half an hour ! The 
idea suggests a halfpenny joumaUst's 
interview. 

In our Junior School Examination it is 
laid down that the complete works of two 
authors must have been read during the 
year; in the Matriculation Examination 
no such rule has yet been made. 

I have dealt with most of Bir. Kirk- 
man's points. I have no good word to say 
for preliminary examinations, and it is 
better to keep the bad words unspoken. 
As for the qualifications of inspectors and 
examiners, what is there to be said by one 
who has acted as both ? When I consider 
what qualities have helped me most, I 
think the earnest desire to appreciate the 
difficulties of the learner and of the teacher, 
the outcome of my own teaching experience, 
has enabled me to judge the work of others 
in a sympathetic way ; and my conviction 
that encouragement does more good than 
blame has, I hope, added to my usefulness 
in the carrying out of work which only 
the thoughtless can consider easy, and 
which only those who love it should 
undertake. 



XIII. 
Mb. F. B. Eirkxan. 

The following deals briefly with the 
various questions raised in the syllabus 
that served as a basis for this discussion 
(Vol. IV., Na 2, p. 68). It attempts to 
give, as far as this is possible within the 
space available, the general opinion of the 
contributors, and also, on certain points, 
the personal views of the present writer. 
The numbers refer to the questions in the 
syllabus: 

1. The general opinion was that the 
existing multiplicity of examining and 
inspecting bodies was xmobjectionable, 
provided a certain standard of efficiency 
was maintained. This efficiency, it was 
thought, would be reached by a process of 
competition resulting in the survival of 
the fit. Which bodies were unfit, and 
whether they showed any present signs of 
being submerged, was charitably left un- 
recorded. There remains the question of 
inequality of standard. Is it fair, either 
to the public or the candidates, that certi- 
ficates should be more difficult to obtain 
from one examining body than from 
another? Ought there not to be some 
way of rendering standards uniform f 

2. It was held that examination re- 
quirements must inevitably influence the 
methods of instruction in the schools to a 
greater or less extent. If candidates are 
to be passed, those methods will be adopted 
which seem most likely to secure success. 
And sometimes, it may be noted, a method 
is adopted by the teacher, not because it 
actually is the one best calculated to 
achieve success, but because it is assumed 
to be so. Many, for instance, use persis- 
tent translation under the impression that 
it is the best way of preparing for a 
translation test ; the direct method being, 
in fact, much more effective, because it 
gives a better idiomatic grasp of the 
language. It is important, then, that 
examination-papers should be framed with 
an eye to their possible effects on method. 
For example, the conversation on every- 
day topics (weather, etc) as a test often 



172 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



meani that the candidAtas will be given 
Bpecial oonvenation leesoni on these nn- 
edifying topics, the reet of their work 
being possibly of the oldest of old-method 
types — a fact which does not prevent their 
masquerading as the Reform method, and 
even being mistaken for it by people who 
should know better. Similarly, direct 
questions on the grammar mean that the 
grammar will be crammed for its own 
sake. So also English-foreign translation 
in junior examinations means excessive 
translation in junior forms. 

On the other hand, it is obvious that 
the schools must have freedom to experi- 
ment in method, it being left to the 
inspector to see that liberty to do this is 
not mistaken for license to teach badly. 
Examinations can reduce the above- 
mentioned evil effects to a Tniwimnm only 
by, in the first plaoe, confining themselves 
to ends— &^., they must ask, not whether 
the candidate can give the grammatical 
rules, but whether he can apply them in 
practice ; and. secondly, by the method of 
alternative papers. It has been pointed 
out that these are difficult to * standardize,' 
but this is due only to the preposterous 
system of trying to discover distinctionB 
between candidates varying from 1 to 100. 
However, even if we assume the 100 
maximum, it is not difficult so to arrange 
the marks that only from six to a dozen 
degrees of merit are taken into account 

3. Some writers suggest the abolition ot 
junior and preliminary examinations. No 
one would regret the disappearance of the 
latter ; but, as long as pupils quit school 
at sixteen, the former will presumably be 
necessary. 

4. Passing to the constituent elements 
of the examination, and beginning with 
the test of ability to understand the 
written language, we find the opinion 
almost unanimous in favour of translation 
into English of unseen passages, and it 
would be difficult to devise a better. 

5. Turning to the test of ability to 
write the language, it is pointed out by 
Mr. A. W. Atkinson (No. 4, p. 104) that 
dictation has been rendered practically 



superfluous by the oral teat. Tranalation 
from English is recommended for senior 
examinations; its value in junior examina- 
tions is questioned, for the reason given 
above under 2. Free composition is 
favoured, the method of giving it mostly 
recommended being that of the Joint 
Board and Scotch Board : the reading of 
an English story to be reproduced in the 
foreign language by the candidate, who 
keeps before him the heads of the narra- 
tive. Experience has shown the method 
to be quite practicable. Short essays 
(about twelve lines) on common subjects 
are occasionally useful, and in senior 
examinations there is room for an essay 
on the subject-matter of books the can- 
didates have submitted. Long free com- 
positions on given subjects in junior forms 
are poor tests of the foreign language, as 
they leave the unimaginative candidate 
little opportunity of showing what he 
does know. Not much is said in fiivonr 
of direct questions on grammar, the objeo- 
tion to them being, firstly, that knowledge 
of grammar does not prove ability to use 
the language oorrectly, it frequently hap- 
pening that a candidate will know a rule 
or an inflection, and yet fail to apply it 
when doing free composition or prose 
translation. Also, in conversation tests, 
I have had candidates make gross mis- 
takes, and yet be able immedii^y after- 
wards to give the paradigm or tiie rule 
correctly and without hesitation. The 
same may be said of sentences for trans- 
lation so framed as to direct attention to 
a grammatical point. I have records to 
show that candidates will, for instance, 
get a concord right in such a sentence, 
and get similar concords wrong in the 
free composition that follows in the same 
paper. It applies also to asking for 
examples of the use of a given rule or 
word — a test, moreover, that requires 
time to be spent in doing much more 
than is immediately necessary. All that 
can be said for it is that it occasionally 
produces results which relieve the tedium 
of marking: e.g., 'M. Chamberlain est 
fou car il ne sait rien' — a statement 



DISCUSSION COLUMN 



173 



likely to b« oomforting and refreshing at 
least to the exaniiner who is not a Tariff 
Reformer, lij experience is that the 
most searching test of inaccturaoy in in- 
flections is the free composition, and that 
nothing more than this is needed for the 
porpose. 

In this connection I should like to 
draw attention to what seems to he a 
▼ery common misunderstanding. I hear 
examiners frequently asserting that ex- 
amination results show an increasing 
neglect of the rudiments of grammar. 
This ignores the alteration in the char- 
acter of the tests. It was perfectly easy 
to show accurate knowledge of accidence 
when it was merely a question of answering 
direct questions — e.g,y Give the plurcUs of 
heau, etc Careful cramming of grammar 
sufficed. These sort of questions are now 
largely abandoned ; the test bears upon 
the ability to use the inflections, and is 
consequently far more difficult. What is 
wanted to meet the new situation is not 
more cramming of paradigms, however 
useful this may be as a preliminary exer- 
cise, but more practice of the inflections 
in sentence form ; in other words, more 
oral practice by question and answer in 
the foreign language itself. It is certain 
that a teacher who gives this thorough 
drill is the one who in the future will 
score results. Here drill in the paradigms, 
vriihawt the oral serUenee praeticet will do 
nothing. Verhum sap, 

6. The conversation test that meets 
with most favour is that based upon a 
reading book (one hundred pages or so) 
selected by the teacher. With experience 
of all the methods of testing conversational 
ability, extending over several years, I 
have no hesitation in subscribing to this 
view. The argument that the reader can 
be crammed in such a way as to deceive 
even a callow examiner is one that no one 
who has used the method could possibly 
urge. The great advantage it has over 
all the others is that it influences school 
method in the right direction ; it means 
that oral practice will be based upon some- 
thing worth talking about, for I assume 



that the reading book, though chosen by 
the school, should be approved by the 
examining body. That this would involve 
the reading of several texts by the 
examiner^would be a justifiable argument 
if examinations were made for examiners. 
But, as a matter of fact, the books chosen 
are usually very limited in number and 
old favourites. Conversation on general 
topics may be occasionally useful as 
auxiliary to the above, but as a method 
by itself is indefensible, because, more 
than anything eUe, it is responsible for 
the spurious * Reform' method, which 
oonsLBts in using Chardenal three hours a 
week, and giving a ' conversation lesson ' 
in the fourth. The picture test has also 
an auxiliary use. I have had three years' 
experience of the test based on an unseen 
passage read by the candidate, and nuule 
careful notes of the result The objections 
to the method are: (1) That the read- 
ing of the passage takes up time that 
can ill be spared. What in practice 
happens is that the passage is read at one 
and the same time both with a view to 
reading and to conversation, thus requiring 
the candidate to attend to two things at 
once. (2) Nervous candidates sometimes 
forget the substance of the passage, and 
the examiner has to hunt about for some- 
thing else, there being no time to re-read. 
(8) Candidates with quick memories are 
able to give portions of the passage verba- 
<m, sometimes making, however, egr^ous 
howlers in other parts. It is difficult to 
decide sometimes the part played in an 
answer by merit and quick memory respec- 
tively. I may add that the time lost per 
day by the method would represent a 
considerable money loss in fees to an 
examining body. A noble admission for 
an examiner to make ! 

7. No special test in understanding the 
spoken language was insisted upon. 

8. A reading test was regarded as neces- 
sary. One contributor rightly pointed out 
that the new test, which consists of writing 
a passage in phonetic script, does not 
necessarily imply an ability to pronounce 
correctly — ' it simply shows, in all proba- 



174 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



bility, that the papil Iim dona the i 
thing before.' Perhape thit Is all thnt the 
examiner wanted to know. 

9. The oonduaioni as to what should be 
the oonstitoent parts of the test showed, 
on the whole, a tendency to rednoe them 
to the few esientials : (1) Translation into 
Rngliah of unseen psssigea ; (2) translation 
from English in higher examinations ; 
(8) conversation and reading test This, 
in &ct, would senre all porpoees. 

10 and 11. The question of inspection 
was somewhat overshadowed by examina- 
tion, but there seemed to be a general 
feeling that the whole question of the re- 
lation that one should bear to the other 
requires far more careful consideration 
than it has, so far, received. 

1^ 1^ 1^ 

As an appropriate appendix to the 
Discussion Column, we think it well to 
publish part of the paper in French 
Grammar set for Higher Certificates by 
the Oxford and Cambridge Schools 
Examination Board. Part I. consists of 
alternative sections, A and B ; apparently 
they are intended for pupils taught ac- 
cording to the old and the new methods 
respectively. From Section A we select 
the following questions : 

What is the gender of— 
(a) Nouns ending in entt 
{b) Nouns ending in ence^ 

(c) Nouns ending in ie» ie, tie, 

(d) Abstract nouns ending in U, tief 
Give examples and the best -known 

exceptions in each case. 

How do you translate the interrogative 
pronoun what — 

(a) In a direct question (nominative 
case), 

(6) In an indirect question ? 

When may the pronoun wTurni be 
rendered by qui t 

Construct (and translate) sentences to 
illustrate your answer in each case. 

In a sentence containing two objective 



penonal pranonns, when is the imdind 
object represented by a weak {wt^wmcHm), 
and when by a strong {dUfwnatim) pio- 
noont 

In Section B the first qnestum «^ta*tmi^ 
a passage in which the verbs appear in the 
infinitive, and the imperfect or past 
definite is to be substituted; bat what wHl 
reform teachers say to the other two 
questions ! One consists of Rngliali mo- 
tences to be translated into French ; they 
are identical with Question 5 of Section A. 
The other question we must give in full, 
because of its peculiar perversity : 

Be- write the following sentences in their 
proper form, correcting every mistake 
which yon can detect, and explain in a 
footnote your reasons for each correction : 

(a) L*histoire de Christophe Colomb, 
que nous avons juste lu, resemble oelle 
des plus grands h^ros qui jamais vivaisnt. 

(h) Colomb fut n6 k Genes en mills 
quatre cents trente six. 

(e) Son p^ le fit ^ev^ k Pavie, mais 
quand fig^ quatorze il retouma i G^ea. 

{d) L'histoire perd la vue de lui poor 
plusieurs ans, mais un jour nous le 
retrouvons 6tabli k Lisbonne, avec la 
fenune qu'il avait mari^ Ul 

(e) II croyait que la terre f&t un globe, 
autonr lequel c'etait possible navigner par 
allant tout droit k I'ouest. 

(/) Malgr^ les pri&res de Colomb le roi 
ne voulut pas lui ^uter. 

{g) Alors il laissa Lisbonne, pour aller 
offrir aux EspagnoU le monde nenf qui eat 
M d^lin^ par le Portugal 

We are doing our best to prevent oar 
pupils from seeing and writing bad French, 
and the examiners set a question like this ! 
How will this kind of question react on 
the teaching t If it were a paper set for 
teachers in training, such a question woald 
be justifiable ; but there can be no valid 
excuse for its appearance in a paper 
intended for boys and girli at school. 

[W. E.1 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 



176 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 
THE NEW CONDITIONS OF MEMBERSHIP. 



As will be 8een from the Report of 
the Special General Meeting held 
last June, the annual subscription 
has been altered to 7s. 6d., which 
will include Modern Language 
Teaching only. Members joining 
after September 1 in any year will 
pay 8s. 6d. for remainder of that 
and the following year. The price 
of the Review to members of the 
Modem Language Association will 
be 7s. 6d. per annum, and to all 
others 128. 6d. per annum. 
The new arrangements for the 



A Special Gensbal Mbstino was held at 
the College of Preceptors on Satorday, 
June 27. 

lir. A. A. Somerville was in the Chair. 

The following resolution was moved from 
the Chair: 

That the annual minimnm sabsoription 
to the Association be in future 7s. 6d. per 
annum, and that Modern Lanouaoe 
Teaching be sent free to all members of 
the Association. 

Mr. Preston (Exeter) raised the point 
whether the general body of members had 
been sufficiently consulted about the new 
arrangements for carrying on the Modern 
LANorAOE Rbtiew, and urged that more 
oare should be taken to ascertain the views 
of provincial members. 

It was explained by the Chairman and 
the Hon. Secretary that the question had 
been before the Association for some time, 
that a report on the subject had been laid 
before the Annual General Meeting, and 
that the General Committee had alio con- 
sidered the matter. 

The resolution was then passed. 

A further resolution was passed, to the 
effect that the subscription for members 
joining after September 1 in any year 



Rmew will come into force with 
the next number, which will be 
published in October. This number 
will not be suppliedgratis to members 
of the Association, the subscription 
to the Association covering the four 
numbers — October, 1907 ; January, 
April, July, 190a 

Members who wish to continue 
to receive the Review should com- 
municate with the Hon. Secretary 
of the Association, and enclose a 
P.0.0. for 7s. 6d. 



should be 8s. 6d. for the remainder of that 
year and the following year. 



The ordinary monthly meeting of the 
Executive Committee was held at the Col- 
lege of Preceptors on Saturday, June 27. 

Present: Messrs. Somerville (chair), 
Allpress, Breul, Fiedler, von Glehn, 
Hutton, Eirkman, Milner-Barry^ Pollard, 
Rippmann, Miss Shearson, Messrs. Storr, 
Twentyman, and the Hon. Secretary. 

Miss Morley wrote regretting inability 
to attend. Tlie minutes of the last meet- 
ing were read and confirmed. 

The resolutions passed by the General 
Meeting were reported by the Chairman. 

It was decided that the Annual General 
Meeting should be held on January 12 
and 13, 1909. 

On the motion of Mr. Kirkman it was 
resolved that a Sub-committee should be 
appointed to consider methods of increas- 
ing the membership and extending the 
action of the Association. 

The members appointed to serve on the 
Sub-oonmiittee were Mr. Kirkman (con- 
yener), Miss Purdie, Professor Rippmann, 
Misi Shearton, and Mr. Twentyman. 



176 



MODERN LANOUAOE TEACHINO 



The Sab-oommittee on Qemuui reported 
that a letter to the Preeident of the 
Board of Edacation had been drawn np, 
and would be sent in as soon as the 
signatoree of the repreeentatiTes of the 
co-operating bodies had been obtained. 

The Travelling Exhibition Snb-oom- 
mittee reported that the German Section 
had been formed. 

Professors Bippmann and R. A. Williams 
were appointed delegates to the meeting 
of the British Association in Dublin. 

The following new members were elected : 

A. H. Crowther, B.A.. Bilton Grange, 
Rugby. 

Miss M. M. Drewer, li.A., Grammar 
School for Girls, Wellingborough. 

Miss Eroon, High School, Berkhamsted. 

Miss M. Marsh. B. A., Upholland Gram- 
mar School. Lanes. 

H. F. Poolej, B.A., 27 Grande Rue, 
Bourg-la-Reine, France. 

J. S. Walters, Wilson's School. Peck- 
ham, S.E. 

Miss E. M. Yates, Binglej Grammar 
School, Yorks. 



Ths ordinary monthly meeting of the 
Executive Committee was held at the 
College of Preceptors on Saturday, 
September 26. 

Present : Messrs. Somerville (chair), 
Allpress, Miss Batchelor, Messrs. Breul, 
Fiedler, von Glehn, Hutton, Kirkman, 
Milner-Barry, Payen-Payne, Pollard, Ripp- 
mann. Miss Shearson, and the Hon. 
Secretary. 

Miss Morley and Mr. Twentyman wrote 
regretting inability to attend. 

The minutes of the last meeting were 
read and confirmed. 

The report of the Committee on Train- 
ing was presented, and it was resolved to 
take it into consideration at the next 
meeting. 

On the recommendation of the Annual 
General Meeting Sub-conmiittee, it was 
resolved to authorize the expenditure of 
a sum not exceeding £20 on an address or 
addresses at the meeting. 

Miss Batchelor presented a report on the 



international ezohange of ohildren, ths 
substanoe of which appears elaewhera. On 
the motion of the Chairmao, a cordial vots 
of thanks was given to Misa Batchelor ftr 
her services. 

It was resolved to propose to the 
General Meeting that the subaoriptioB for 
life-membership should be £5 5a. 

The following were appointed aa repre- 
sentatives of the Association on ths 
Committee of Management of the MoDOir 
Lanouaob Rktibw: Mr. Allpress, Dr. 
Breul, Professor Fiedler, Professor Ripp- 
maun, and Mr. Somerville. 

The following eighteen new members 
were elected : 

Stanley Austin, B.A., Royal Grammar 
School. High Wycombe. 

Dr. H. M. Ayrer, Columbia Universitj, 
U.S. A. 

Miss J. M. Boyd. L.LJu, St Margaret's 
School, Aberdeen. 

E. H. Budde, Ph.D., Taylorian Lectorer, 
Oxford University. 

Miss M. Clokie, Netherthorpe Grammar 
School, Derbyshire. 

Miss 0. C. Durand, High School, 
Durham. 

J. L. Gibbons, Blyth Secondary School, 
Northumberland. 

Miss £. 0. Grimwade, B.A., High 
School, Exeter. 

A. G. Ferrers Howell, LL.M.. South- 
lands, Heavitree, Exeter. 

Dr. J. S. Kenyon, University of 
Indiana. U.S.A. 

Dr. W. W. Lawrence, Colombia 
University, U.S.A. 

Miss I. P. Pressly, M.A., Municipal 
School for Girls, York. 

Miss K. Ryley, 46, Grosvenor Road, 
Birkdale, Southport 

L. R. M. Strachan, M.A., University of 
Heidelberg. 

W. Todd, M.A., B.Sc., Mirfield Gram- 
mar School, Yorks. 

Miss. A. M. Ward, Com Maricet, 
Pontefract 

Miss D. WoUerston, High School. 
Swansea. 

Miss Jean Woodward, York OoUege for 
Girls. York. 



THE NEUPHILOLOGENTAG AT HANOVER 



177 



THE NEUPHILOLOGENTAG AT HANOVER. 



Ths thirteenth biennial meeting of the 
German Modem Language Association 
was held in Hanoyer from the 8th to the 
13th of Jone, and was attended by over 
800 members and delegates. The pro- 
ceedings commenced unofficially on 
Monday with a Begrusgwagsahend in the 
KdnigihaUe, at which each member re- 
ceiyed a badge and a packet of literature 
including the list of members, an excel- 
lent illustrated guide to Hanover, and a 
valuable Festschrift, edited by Professor 
Philippsthal (Hanover), with contribu- 
tions, among others, fh>m Professor Sachs 
(Brandenburg), Geheimrat Miinch (Berlin), 
and Professor Stengel (Greifewald). 

On Tuesday morning the Congress was 
formally opened in the fine hall of the 
old Bathaus by Geheimrat Stimming 
(Gottingen). After briefly sketching the 
history of the NeujpkUologtn - Verband, 
which twenty-two years ago was founded 
in Hanover with 305 members, and has 
now risen to a membership of 2,100, 
he dwelt on the importance of Modem 
Language studies for the material and 
intellectual life of the nation. He 
rejoiced that the new regulations for the 
admission of students to the Prussian 
Universities had put Modem Langusgee 
on practically the same level as the 
ancient languages, but emphasized the 
fact that this gratifying recognition of 
their subject had also imposed new duties 
and responsibilities on Modem Language 
masters. They must realize that in schools 
in which no classics were taught the 
pupils depended for their humanistic 
training mainly on Modem Languages, 
and that, therefore, more and more stress 
must be laid on the literary and human- 
istic side of their Modem Language 
teaching. While not underrating the 
practical utility of discussions of method, 
he hoped the meeting would bear in mind 
that the personality of the teacher was of 
infinitely greater importance than any 
particular method he might adopt, and 



that it would therefore be a grave mistake 
if, instead of allowing the teacher a free 
hand in the choice of the method most 
congenial to him, they were to aim at a 
rigid uniformity of method in all the 
schools. 

Geheimrat MUnch (Berlin) addressed 
the meeting in the name of the Prussian 
Minister of Education, and Stadtsyndicus 
Eyl extended to the members of the Con- 
gress a hearty welcome on behalf of the 
municipal authorities. 

Then followed speeches by representa- 
tives of foreign Governments and kindred 
associations. Professor Schweitzer (Paris) 
greeted the assembly in the name of the 
French Minister of Education ; Dr. Spencer 
expressed the good wishes of the English 
Board of Education ; and the representa- 
tives of the English Modem Language 
Association, Prpfessor Fiedler (Oxford) 
and Mr. Savory (Marbui^;), brought greet- 
ings from the English colleagues and an 
invitation to the next annual meeting 
of the Modem Language Association at 
Oxford in January, 1909. 

The remaining time of the moming 
sitting was devoted to the reading of 
three papers : one by Professor Philippsthal 
(Hanover), on Taines Weltanschauung und 
ihre deuischen Quellen; another by Dr. 
Engwer (Berlin), on Franzdsische Malerei 
und LUeratur im 19. Jahrhunderi ; and 
a third by Dr. Eichler (Wien), on Das 
hoehdetUsche Sprach- und KvUurgui im 
fnodemen, englischen Sprachachatz, The 
last of these has since appeared in the 
August number of the BeiblcUt zurAnglia, 
and the t^'o former will be printed before 
long in Victor's Neuere Sprachen, 

The aftemoon sitting commenced with 
a most instractive paper on Shakespeare- 
tfbersetzungen, by Professor Schroer (Koln), 
which is also to be published in Neuere 
Sprachen, Geheimrat Miinch followed with 
a stimulating discourse on the Vcrbiidung 
der LthrtT der nsueren Sprachen. He 
considered that the training given to 



178 



MODEBN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Man Modem Luignige tasehen by the 
UniTemtiet still left much to be desired. 
Undue prominenoe was still given to the 
older poriods of the langnige, and when 
leaTing the University students possess e d 
only a very imperfect knowledge of the 
living language and its literature. In the 
lively discussion which followed. Pro- 
fessors Suchier (Halle) and Morsbaoh 
(Gottingen) maintained that at their 
Universities, at any rate, the later periods 
of French and English literature received 
proper attention, but that no better results 
could be attained as long as students were 
compelled to combine the study of two 
liodem Languages. It was impossible to 
obtain anything like mastery over two 
foreign languages, and the combination of 
French and English could only lead to 
superficiality in both. 

In the afternoon, Dr. Uhlemayr (Niim- 
berg) spoke on Der fretndspraehliclih 
\ UnterrielU vor dan. Forum des pOda- 
gogischen KritisismuSt making a vigorous 
attack on some of the main tenets of the 
'Reformers.* He could see only little, if 
any, educational value in the conversa- 
tional method, and considered that the 
practical utility of a conversational com- 
mand of a foreign language was entirely 
out of proportion to the trouble it cost to 
acquire, as in international intercourse the 
only thing needed was to understand, and 
not to speak, each other's language. He 
would abolish free composition, translation 
into the foreign language, and conversa> 
tion, and devote more time to reading 
and translation into the mother-tongue. 
He proposed the following resolution, 
which, after a long and lively discussion, 
was lost : 

' Der prodvMive, d. h. der auf Hand- 
habung der fremden Sprache abzielende 
fremdsprachliche Unterricht entspricht 
nicht dem Wesen tmd dem Zwecke der 
Erziehungsschule, darum ist es im In- 
teresse einer gedeihlichen Entwickelung 
des Schulwesens notwendig, dass der 
fremdsprachliche Unterricht rezeptiv 
werde, d. h. sich in Ziel und Methode 
auf das Verstehen der geschriebenen und 



gesproohenen Spraohe besehxSiike. — ^Den- 
entsprsoheod soil die Lektttn die Basis 
nicht bloM dee Unterriohts, Bondem anch 
der Priifting sein. In dieaer sdlsB 
Hintibersetsung sowie frsie Arbeiten w^g- 
fallen ; Diktat und HerttbersetEong •ollfli 
die wesentliohen Priifnngsmittal bQden.' 

After Professor Schweitzer (Pkris) had 
discoursed on Le$ rttmmrees di la mMkodt 
direde, Direktor Walter (Frankfurt) sub- 
mitted the following proposals to the 
meeting: 

' 1. Die Hauptquelle fOr die Atieignmig 
des Wortschatzes ist der die Schnkr 
interessierende Spraoh- und Leaeetoff. — 
Im Anfangsunterricht insbesondere stsht 
dis Einpr&gung des Wortschatzes in eng- 
ster Yerbindung mit einem naoh sach- 
lichen Oesiohtspunkten geordneten und 
der Fassungskraft der SohiQer entaprech- 
enden Sprachstoffe. 

' 2. Die Schiller sind dazu anzuleitan. 
die Bedeutung aller aufkretenden W(lrter 
und idiomatischen Wendungen durch 
unmittelbare Yerkniipfung mit der Hand- 
lung, dem Dinge oder Bilde (Zeichnung 
an der Tafel) oder durch Umschraibung in 
der fremden Sprache zu gewinnen, oder, 
soweit als mbglich, aus dem Satzsuaam- 
menhange zu erschliessen. — Die Mutter- 
sprache ist nur im Notfalle heranzuziehen, 

* 3. Yon Zeit zu Zeit empfiehlt sich eine 
Durchmusterung des Lesestoffes, um den 
gewonnenen Wortschatz nach bestimmten 
formalen und sachlichen Gruppen zu 
ordnen. 

*4. Der **aktive" Wortschatz musa 
durch das Sprechen der Sprache lebendig 
erhalten und durch vielseitige Obungen 
in der Gruppierung und im Ersatz der 
Ausdriicke stetig befestigt und erganzt 
werden. — Sehr niitzlich und anregend 
erweist sich hierbei die freie dialogiache 
Behandlung geeigneter Sprachstoffe. — 
Der "passive" Wortschatz erfahrt dnrch 
fleissiges Lesen stetige Brweiterung. Yon 
der Einpragung selten vorkonmiender 
Worter und Wendungen ist selbstverstand- 
lich Abstand zu nehmen.' 

After the chairman (Professor Morsbach) 
had pointed out that these proposals 



THE NEUPHILOLOGENTAa AT HANOVEB 



179 



would natonllj only apply to those who 
tMod the direct method, they were oanied. 
The following scheme for the training 
and examination of Modem Language 
masteirs, prepared by Professor Sieper 
(Miinchen) and Direktor Dorr (Frankfurt), 
was also adopted after some discussion : 

' Studvum und Examen. 

' 1. Das Studium der neueren Philologie 
soil sich ausser auf Spraohe und Literatur 
anoh auf die iibrigen Gebiete des 
Knlturlebens Frankreichs und Englands 
entreoken. 

'2. Die wissenschafbliche Schulung darf 
nioht auasohliesslich Gewicht auf die 
gedlichtniamiissige Aneignung dee rein 
Stoffliohen legen, sie soil namentlich auch 
befiihigen, eigene wissenschaftliohe Arbeit 
su leisten. 

* 3. Eine mogliohst vielseitige und aus- 
dauemde Beteiligung der Studierenden an 
den wissensohaftlichen tJbungen ist drin- 
gend zu wtinschen. Diese Beteiligung ist 
sowohl im Interesse der Vorbereitung fiir 
die systematisohen Yorlesungen als auoh 
um der Selbsbetatigung der Studenten 
willen zu erstreben. 

'4. Die zwangsweise Eombination von 
Franzoeisch und Englisch ist abzuweisen, 
da eine gleichmassig yollkommene Be- 
herrschnng der beiden Sprachen nur in 
den seltensten Fallen zu erreichen ist. 

' 5. (Im Examen ist eine moglichst all- 
seitige und ausgleichend gerechte Beur- 
teilung der Eandidaten zu erstreben.) 
Ffir jedes Fach ist in der Begel nur ein 
Examinator zu bestellen. 

'Die praktisehe Seiie der AusbUdung dee 
Netiphilologen. 

' 1. Die Studienzeit des Neuphilologen, 
fiir die mindestens acht Semester erforder- 
lioh sind, ist durohaus dem Faohstudium 
▼orbehalten. 

' 2. Die Anforderungen im Franzosischen 
oder EngUsohen als Nebenfach (zweite oder 
untere Stufe der Lehrbefahigung) sind, 
•oweit die Beherrschung der modemen 
Spraohe und Literatur in Frage kommt, 
denen in dem Hauptfache gleichzustellen. 



' 8. Der Hauptprttfting folgt eine prak- 
tisohe Yorbereitungszeit von am besten 
zwei Jahren. Das zweite Jahr kann im 
Ausland verbracht werden/ 

In the afternoon sitting, which was 
held in the Teehnieche ffocheehule, Dr. 
Panconoelli-Oa]zia (liarburg) and Professor 
Scheffler (Dresden) explained the possi- 
bilities of phonograph and gramophone 
in Modem Language teaching, practical 
demonstrations being also given by Pro- 
fessor Thudichum (Geneve) and Mr. 
Savory. 

On Thursday morning Professor Schnee- 
gans (WtLrzburg) read a paper on Modeme 
/ranz6si9che Liieraturffeeehichte im Unu 
veniUUebetrieb, in which he claimed that 
modem literature could be studied just as 
* scientifically ' as medieval, and dwelt on 
the necessity of paying greater attention 
to the literary side of their subject if they 
wanted Modem Languages to take an 
equal place with the classics. 

Professor Yietor spoke on the organiza- 
tion and equipment of French and 
English Seminarey in which students 
should be trained not only in philology 
and literature, but also in the practical 
use of the language. He urged the estab- 
lishment of extensive Seminar-Librariee 
and the grant of a sufficient number of 
travelling scholarships. 

Professor Schweitzer outlined a scheme 
for an Institut Fran9ais pour Strangers, 
which he intended to found in Paris.* 

The position of English in the Prassian 
Gfymnasia and OberrecUechulen was dis- 
cussed by Professors Huth (Stettin) and 
von Scholten (Halle), and Dr. Steinmiiller 
(Wiirzburg) moved that at the next Neu- 
fhilologentag the question of uniformity in 
phonetic notation should be considered : 
this was agreed to. The motion that Zurich 

* This scheme has since taken shape, 
and the institution will be opened on 
November 1. Full particulars can be 
obtained from Professor Schweitzer. 
Directeur de Tlnstitnt Fran9ais, Hdtel 
des Sod^t^ Savances, 28, Rue Serpente, 
Paris. 

18 



180 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



be the meeting-pkoe 6f the C!oiigre« in 
1910 was carried by •ooUmation, and the 
President accepted the invitation conveyed 
by Professor Yetter (Zurich) with best 
thanks. 

The arrangements made by the local 
committee included several social func- 
tions. On Tuesday evening the members 



met at a banquet, on Wednesday tbey 
were entertained by the town at a recep- 
tion and supper, and an excurnon to 
beautiful old Hildesheim brought the 
Oongress to a successM close. It it 
wortiiy of note that the town of Hanover 
had voted £100 towards the expenses of 
the Congress. H. O. Fieolxb. 



INTERNATIONAL EXCHANGE OF CHILDREN. 



Exact statistics of the number of 
international exchanges of children 
effected this summer are not ready 
yet, but the number is approxi> 
mately thirty -five, as against 
twenty - three last year. Some 
twelve exchanges for periods of six 
or twelve months have also been 
arranged. A fresh list of fourteen 
French families desiring an ex- 
change for a long period was sent 
us in August by the £change 
International at Paris. Offers of 



exchanges with German families 
are very badly "wanted ; there are 
several German boys and girls on 
our list for whom no exchange has 
yet been found. Members are 
urged to make the system known 
amongst their friends, for in a 
matter of this kind private infor- 
mation has great weight with 
parents. All commimications on 
this subject should be addressed to 
Miss Batchelor, Grassendale, South- 
boume-on-Sea, Hants. 



HOLIDAY COURSE BURSARIES. 



Ths West Lanes Branch of the I. A. A. M. 
has recently collected some information 
as to the assistauce given by varions local 
authorities for encouraging teachers to 
attend Modem Language Holiday Courses 
abroad. From answers referring to the 
authorities of twenty-seven counties and 
about fifty boroughs or districts it appears 
that seventeen County Councils — viz., 
Staffordshire, Derbyshire, Hertfordshire, 
Essex, Surrey, Kent, Yorkshire (W.R.), 
Berkshire, Devon, Glamorgan, Westmor^ 
land, Cumberland, Durham, Cambridge, 
Middlesex, Sussex, and London — have 
during the last few years given such grants, 
ranging in value from £6 to £14. Of 
these, London alone has offered sixty 
grants of £10 each. Two counties also— 
viz., Notts and Lancashire — are consider- 
ing the question of making similar offers in 
the coming year. By the boroughs far 
less has been done hitherto, and only 



three or four — notably Leeds, Bradford, 
and Huddersfield — have given any assist- 
ance at all. In Manchester, however, 
similar help has for some time been given 
by the generosity of a private individual, 
and in Gloucester by some of the school 
authorities. The courses for which grants 
are given are usually those for French and 
German, but in some cases also for Spanish ; 
and by most of the authorities certain 
conditions are laid down to insure that 
the money be not misapplied. Smaller 
grants are also made in'^'Some districts to 
encourage attendance at courses such as 
those held during August at Oxford tot 
teachers of geography. It seems probable 
that other authorities might be induced 
to follow this lead if representations were 
made to them by those associations within 
their area which are interested in the 
matter. 



HOLIDAY COUBSE IMPRESSIONS 



181 



HOLIDAY COURSE IMPRESSIONS. 



Wx gire below aoooontB of five holiday 
ooanw, and should welcome siinilar oon- 
tribations from teachers who have attended 
other courses doring the sommer holidays. 

TOUBS. 

As in other years, the Course of Leo- 
tares took place at the Lyc^ Descartes, 
which had been kindly placed at the 
disposal of the English Committee. The 
nmnber of students attending the lectures 
was smaller than usuaL Two courses of 
lectures were given. In the elementary 
course M. Letzelter treated of ComeiUe, 
Racine, Molidre, and La Fontaine, adding 
variety to his lectures by some extremely 
interesting talks on the life and customs 
of the sixteenth oontuiy. In the ad- 
vanced course, M. Papot dealt with 
Clement Marot, Babelais, Pascal, Moli^re, 
Yoltaire, Rousseau, and Lamartine. The 
originality and scholarship of the lecturer 
enabled him to hold his audience to a 
remarkable degree. In addition to lec- 
tures on purely literary matters, he drew on 
his local knowledge to give a most interest- 
ing account of the Protestant town of La 
RocheUe, and of its influence on French 
history. 

Both lecturers took an infinity of pains 
to make the classes of composition and 
conversation attractive and profitable. 

The fine weather which we eigoyed 
enabled a considerable number of excur- 
sions to be made to the various chAteaux. 
Langeais, Amboise, Azay-le-Rideau, Che- 
nonceaux, Chaumont, and the ruins of 
Loches and Chinon, recalled to our minds 
the lessons on Fren<^ history that most 
of us had forgotten, and added a new 
interest to the subject of the relations 
between France and England in other 
days. 

A new system of examination was tried 
this year : the same papers were set for 
both centres, and the final awarding of the 
certificatee wiU rest with the Committee 
in London. Thus any inequalities of 



standard at the two centres, or of different 
years, will be done away with ; separate 
certificates will also be awarded for pro- 
ficiency in written or spoken French. 

A soir^ to the Professeurs at the Villa 
la Pierre brought our visit to Tours to a 
close, and many of us wished, as we 
strolled through the garden in the soft 
light of the lanterns with which it was 
illuminated, that our stay could have been 
longer, and marvelled how three weeks 
oonld have passed so swiftly away. 

HONFLEUB. 

The Modem Languages Committee of 
the Teachers' Guild have this year made a 
noteworthy departure in connection with 
their French Courses. The examination 
has been entirely remodelled. It now 
consists of two parts, intended to test 
proficiency m Oral and Written French. 
The Oral is conducted by two French 
lecturers with an English assessor, and 
consists of reading, conversation on sub- 
jects selected from a list, and dictation. 
The written examination consists of an 
essay on a literary subject chosen from the 
lectures delivered to the students, an essay 
on a general subject, and a reproduction of 
a story previously read aloud to the can- 
didates. The papers are read and com- 
mented on by the French lecturers, and 
marked by an independent English ex- 
aminer. The final list is divided into 
three classes by the Modem Languages 
Committee, and for the present the result 
is made known to the candidates concerned 
privately. 

It is intended that the standard re- 
quired for a first dass should be high, 
and that the certificates awarded should, 
in consequence, be of real value to Assistant 
Masters and Mistresses. 

For some years the course at Honfleur 
has owed a good deal of its suooess to the 
kindness of the inhabitants themselves, 
who look forward with undisguised eager- 
ness to the arrival of ' la oolonie anglaiie.' 

18—2 



182 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



A prelimixiArj meetmg ii amngod b} the 
indefiittigabla looal tecretmrj, M. Leoonte, 
Profewear of Sn^iah at the CoUflge. The 
stadenti are reoeiTad bj the chief oiBoen 
of the monioipality and seTeral of the 
leading eitizene. 

The profeseeon and othen who reoeire 
the atadenta into their houaea take great 
paina to see that the atodents hare eTerj 
opportunity of apeaking French, them- 
lelTea arranging private picnics at which 
they insist that no EngUah ahall be 
spoken. 

The plateau lying above and behind 
Honfleur is well wooded and cut by 
charming country lanes. Longer expe- 
ditions can be made by train or cycle to 
Rouen, Caen, Liseux, or Falaise, and the 
town itself is quaint and interesting. The 
chief church, Ste. Catherine, is the work 
of Honfleur shipwrightH, and consiBts of 
two veritable naves, the roofa being simply 
inverted boat-building. 

Another church, now converted into a 
museum, is full of objects recalling the 
dose connection of Normandy with the 
colonization of Canada and Uie English 
occupation during the Hundred Years' 
War. The fishing-boats provide continual 
opportunities for the photographer. 

There is a municipal theatre, and this 
year the students had an opportunity of 
seeing ' Madame Sans Gene ' very well 
done, and 'L'Oberl^ ' — a tragedy of Alsatian 
life, peculiarly interesting, as perhaps the 
only tragedy we are likely to see nowadays 
appealing to a really living national 
sentiment 

The actual work of the course is super- 
intended by M. Leconte, whose knowledge 
of English idiom makes his composition 
lectures particularly valuable ; and by 
M. Blossier, whose lectures are themselves 
fine examples of French style. 

Additional leaders of conversation groups 
are called in according to the number of 
students attending the course, and the 
conversation classes follow a prearranged 
programme. 

The conversation circles are kept down 
to about a dozen, and as the students can 



make sure of their vocabolaiy, the time at 
diaposal can be spent more in patting 
words together than in seardhing for them. 

[A second oorrespondent sends ns the 
following account of the oourse at 
Honfleur.] 

About sixty atndents attended the 
holiday course at Honfleur this year. On 
the Saturday before the beginning of the 
course, the Mayor of the town, with the 
Principal and Professors of the OoUige, 
gave the students a hearty weloome^ Mid 
throughout the three weeks they were all 
most kind in doing anything they oonld 
to help. 

As usual, there were two different 
ooursee of lectures, in French Literature, 
Composition, and Dictation, with Reading 
and Conversation Classes. In the advanced 
course rather too much Literature was 
attempted; the lectures were very full, 
but contained little personal oritieism. 
Unless the set authors had been studied 
beforehand, it was difficult to get any 
dear idea in the short time set aaide 
for their study. 

There was practically no real Phonetics; 
reading was taught in syllablee from the 
' Syllabaire,' used in the ^oole Mater- 
nelle — the whole class reading in unison 
— but there was not enough individual 
attention given. 

The translation from ICri g lMJ^ into 
French was not of much practical uae, 
as poems were chosen, in which the expres- 
sions and vocabulary are not those of 
ordinary life. In the Composition classes, 
too, it was impoesible to give much 
individual attention other than written 
correction. A good vocabulary and infor- 
mation about French life could be learned 
from the Conversation classes, but as the 
time given was so short, there was not 
much actual conversation for each 
student. 

In the elementary course much more 
attention was paid to incorrect pronuncia- 
tion in reading ; the literary lectures were 
much less full, but contained more inde- 
pendent criticism. 



HOLroAY COUESE IMPRESSIONS 



183 



Too mach praise cannot be given both 
to the leotnring professors and to those in 
whose houses the students were boarded, 
for their kindness and zeal in helping 
students to gain as mnch advantage as 
possible from their stay in France. 

NEUWIED. 

To those who desire to improve their 
knowledge of Qermany, its language and 
literature, I can give no better advice 
than that they should spend a part of 
their summer vacation at Neuwied-am- 
Rhein. 

This thriving little town lies near the 
centre of the most romantic part of Ger- 
many's noble river, and numerous are the 
possible excursions up and down the 
stream, or up one of its charming tribu- 
taries. I will mention but one or two of 
those made by members of the Guild's 
Holiday Course. 

One afternoon we took the steamer 
down-stream and visited * the castled crag 
of Drachenfels/ commanding one of the 
noblest prospects on the Rhine. 

Another day we journeyed south to 
RCkdesheim, and saw the great national 
monument on the Niederwald. After 
enjoying the magnificent views across the 
river to Bingen and the Nahe Valley, and 
up the famous Rheingau, we sailed back 
to Neuwied, passing on our way Bishop 
Hatto's Mouse Tower, the Lorelei rock, 
Ooblenz, and Ehrenbreitstein, 

' And chiefless castles breathing stem 

farewells 
From grev but leafv walls, where Ruin 

greenly dwells. 

Our last excursion was to the Laacher 
See, the largest of the crater-like tarns of 
the volcanic Eifel. 

Every morning lecture classes, elemen- 
tary and advanced, were held in the 
Neuwied Gymnasium. The Headmaster, 
Professor Dr. Biese, is the author of several 
well-known works, and the Teachers' Guild 
is certainly to be congratulated on securing 
the services of so proficient and interest- 



ing a lecturer to conduct its Holiday 
Course. One enthusiastic student said : 
* When I get home I shall rave about these 
lectures ; I have heard nothing better in 
Cambridge.' 

Professor Biese is most ably assisted by 
the Mitdirektor of the Moravian Boys' 
School, Herr G. H. Williger, who is a 
most competent teacher and well versed 
in Phonetics. 

Another name, held in grateful memory 
by her pupils, is that of Frl. Dora Schultz, 
who conducted one of the conversation 
classes, which are a special feature of the 
Guild's Course. 

In the last week an examination , written 
and oral, was held, and it is hoped, by 
careful supervision, to make the certificate 
granted to suocessfid candidates a genuine 
and valuable testimony to their knowledge 
of German. 

BESANgON. 

So many of the French Universities have 
during recent years instituted holiday 
oouises that the student who is about to 
go abroad may well experience an em- 
bamu de chaix on consulting the official 
list of centres. The proximity of Flanders, 
the historical interest of Normandy, the 
quaintness of Brittany, and the advantage 
— a questionable one, we think— of meet- 
ing with many compatriots in these 
northern provinces, have been determining 
factors in the choice of a large number of 
students. 

Comparatively few Englishmen have 
considered it advisable to push as far as 
Besanfon; and yet old Yesontium may 
well claim to be an ideal centre. For one 
thing, the boarding-house keepers do not 
depend for a living on the ' catch of the 
season,' so that to go there for a holiday 
is no more expensive than to spend one 
nearer home. And then Besan9on boasts 
of no English colony. The student finds 
himself there in an absolutely French 
atmosphere, so that no day goes by with- 
out bringing some amelioration in his 
accent and some important addition to his 
Yocabulary. 



184 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



We think thftt, even if Besui^on were 
the least aooessible of Frenoh towns, and 
were devoid of historical interest and 
beaatiful scenery, the University course 
woald in itself alone tiilly justify attend- 
ance. The fee charged by the Oomit^ de 
Patronage is very moderate. We paid 
328. for onr earU cTHudiatU and became 
entitled thereby to many privileges. We 
might attend all the leotores and classes, 
both elementary and advanced, which 
were given at the University daring the 
holidays ; we might borrow books from the 
University library and spend our after- 
noons in the reading-rooms, with periodicals 
or books of reference ; and we might enter 
the Oasino grounds at any time without 
payment. These were some of the privi- 
leges offered to registered students of the 
(Jniversity ; there were others, but by far 
the greatest of all was certainly the right 
of attendance at the lectures. 

Thx Coubsi. 

Although the course includes elementary 
classes, these are not intended for be- 
ginners. The work done in them more 
than covers the syllabus of the London 
matriculation ; and one should come to 
them with a fairly extensive vocabulary 
and some knowledge of French accidence 
and syntax. This elementary work con- 
sists in the reading and explanation of 
French authors, exercises on word-forma- 
tion, dictations involving grammatical 
points which usually puzzle the foreign 
student, composition, conversations on 
useful topics, letter and telegram writing, 
and the study of French phonetics. 

The energy and good temper of the Pro- 
fessors in chaige of this section of the 
work was simply admirable. Their en- 
thusiasm carried their classes with them. 
No check was kept on the attendance, and 
none was needed ; some of us, indeed, had 
gone with the intention of attending the 
advanced lectures only, but a visit to the 
elementary classes made us sudden con- 
verts to them ; and if any circumstance 
arose which compelled us to absent our- 



•alvee at any time, we bore oar miafortiuie 
with the bad grace of those who are 
deprived of a very pleasant thing. 

The classes on Frenoh phonetioi were led 
by a dirtingnished University lectarer, 
whose correct pronunciation and clear 
enunciation, together with an enthnsiaatie 
belief in the useftdness of phonetiot, fitted 
him admirably for the work he had in 
hand. No one who heard him read ' Lei 
Pauvres Gens ' at the end of one of hs 
lectures, will readily forget the poem, 
the author, the reader, or the poignant 
emotion which seized the class on hear- 
ing that touching story of a generous 
act told in the sonorous lines of Victor 
Hugo. It was an effective lesson in pro- 
nunciation, in reading, in modem Frentih 
poetry, and in charity, too, though no 
other commentary was given than that 
which a good reader gives in his reading. 

The syllabus of the advanced clsssfn in* 
eluded studies in the use of moods ani 
tenses, explanations of La Fontaine's 
fables, and lectures on Bomanticism, 
French Prosody and the institutions of 
modem France. These lectures proted 
to be very delightful ; they were delivired 
by a man who was exceedingly well versed 
in his subjects— a Licencid te Lettres, ^ 
Droit and Agr^ de PUniversit^^who 
spoke without notes, freely, as a man 
chatting with his friends. Ever bubbling 
over with wit ; ever poking good-humoured 
fun at the foibles of his co]||itrymen, yet 
defending them the while ; referring some- 
times in the most unorthodox manner 
to his private conversations with the 
students ; simply ignoring all the conven- 
tional solemnities of the University lec- 
ture-hall, he managed to give us the 
information we needed — facts, rules, 
dates, and examples — while we scarcely 
realized we were working. And so it hap- 
pened that every Wednesday afternoon, 
sometimes through torrential rain, often 
under the burning August sun, the students 
flocked to his lectures and filled the large 
lecture-hall of the University. 

Besides those already mentioned, there 
were separate classes for English and for 



HOLIDAY COURSE IMPRESSIONS 



185 



Gennan studenti, in which the difficulties 
arising out of the English and the German 
habits of mind were dealt with. 

At all times the attitude adopted by the 
Professors towards the students contrasted 
strikingly with the cold indifference in the 
guise of overwhelming dignity which we 
lave noticed in other lecturers elsewhere. 
Although their classes were often very 
laige. the Professors managed to know all 
their students and to appreciate their par- 
tiodar requirements, so that they were 
abU to give, when it was needed, valuable 
adv;ce concerning the course of study to 
puraie and the examinations to attempt. 
It was very pleasing to notice that the 
same spirit of camaraderie and mutual con- 
fidence existed among the students, al- 
though they were of half a dozen different 
lationalities. 

Everything was done to meet the 
rquirements of the students : criticisms 
and suggestions were often asked for, and 
whsn offered they were always courteously 
listined to, and whenever possible, acted 
npot. 

Sone of the students, for instance, 
asked for some causeriet upon the plays 
whiol had been acted at the Od^n or the 
Commie Fran9aise during the past winter. 
The fdlowing week a Professor began a 
Coarse of studies of those plays. En- 
couraged by this, some of the English 
students asked that in the future the 
programme of the advanced classes might 
be based on the syllabus of the London 
Intermediate and Final 6. A. examina- 
tions in French. This was a veiy bold 
suggestion, for we knew that it implied a 
considerable increase in the teaching staff. 
The response was as immediate as it was 
categorical. The staff, we were told, would 
be increased to the necessary number ; the 
syllabus of the London University ex- 
aminations would be studied and the 
classes organized accordingly. English 
students, therefore, who go to Besan9on 
will henceforth have the advantage of 
the help of French University lecturers in 
the preparation of their degree work. 

Whilst the interests of the students 



are thus carefully considered in the 
classroom, their amusements are by no 
means overlooked. 

Week by week the Professors them- 
selves organize and conduct excursions 
to the museums, to the watch-making 
factories of the town, and to places 
of artistic or historical interest in the 
beautiful neighbouring country. For the 
town ot Besan^on is very ancient and is 
full of interesting monuments of the past. 
On the Square Arch^ologique there are 
still standing certain very fine colunms 
and an arch — vestiges of the Roman period, 
for the natural strength of the emplace- 
ment of the town could not have escaped 
the attention of those warriors. The 
Doubs at this place forms a great horse- 
shoe curve and surrounds the ground on 
which the town is built, except on the 
south side, which is defended by a hill 
1,C00 feet high. Some narrow streets, 
partially formed of curious sixteenth-cen- 
tury houses with arched windows and great 
throe-storied roofs, tell the story of a long 
Spanish occupation; the doable rampart 
on the north side beyond the river, and 
the fortresses crowning half a dozen lofty 
hills which overlook the town, tell of the 
military genius of Vauban. The statues of 
Jouffroy (the engineer) and of Victor Hugo, 
and the Rue Charles Nodier, remind one 
that these men of genius were bom in 
Besan^on. There are also good museums, 
fine churches, the school of watch-making, 
the public library, the famous ' Fontaine 
de Bacchus,' which on days of public 
rejoicing used to flow with wine, and a 
hundred other things that are all worth 
seeing. 

But better even than all these to 
our mind is the bewitching country 
which lies at the gates of the town ; for 
Besan^on is the capital of Franche-Gomt^ 
one of the most picturesque provinces of 
France. The thickly-wooded hills, the 
deep fertile valleys, and the beautifal 
Doubs are the objects of the students' 
frequent excursions and the source of con- 
stant delight. It was all so different from 
what we had seen for many a month — all 



18« 



MODERN LANQUAGE TEACHING 



to oalm and brig^t» ftfter the bottle uid 
the jojlett grey of London. 

The Oomit^ de Putrontge htt founded a 
clnb for the foreign ttodentt, at the meet- 
ingt of which one or other of the Profeaiort 
frequently preridet. Here the foreignert 
meet with their French fellow-etodentt 
and their mntioal friendt, and at the 
Wedneaday evening meetingt French, 
Englith, Oermant, Anttriant. Swiaa, and 
Italiant sing together and dance together, 
jntt as though the newipapert were not 
alwayt tpeaking of racial differenoet and 
natural enmitiet. At theee Wednetday 
gatherings, too, the bold hare opportunities 
of trying their strength at jniblic speaking 
— in French, of course — and are folly re- 
warded for the few moments of nervous 
strain such a performance entails, by 
the encouragement which the sympathetic 
audience is ever ready to give. 

The examination for the Cert\fictU 
€C Chides Fran^aiaea is one of some severity, 
and the certificate is well worth striving 
for. The syllabus of the examination is 
set by the French Board of Education, 
and tlie certificate is given over the seal of 
the University. In Germany its possession 
by French teaoliers has led in some catet 
to a substantial increase of salary. 

There is also at Be8an9on a winter 
session for foreign students, who have the 
privilege of attending the ordinary lec- 
tures of the University, as well as the 
lectures given for their especial benefit 

It was not without regret that, at the 
beginning of September, we saw the end 
of our stay in Besan9on approaching, and 
thought that soon we should have to leave 
our seat in the class to take our stand 
at the desk. When the time came to 
say au revoir we wished that we might 
have added, ' k I'ann^ prochaine.* And 
now that the winter's work has begun 
we look back on that busy holiday as on 
one of the best we have known, for the 
memory of those good French people, of 
those choerfol classes, and of those obliging 
Professors remains as a source of in- 
spiration. 

Osmond T. Robert. 



ST. SERVAir. 

Judging only from a tingle ex ptf k no^ 
I thonld tay that, whether attsndtd for 
teriout study or for mere mental r tft ea h ' 
ment and Uie pleatnrs of hearing the 
choaen language well tpoken. Holiday 
Coursee offer great opportunitiea to tbf 
teacher of Modem Languagea. 

Apart from the benefit derived fron 
residence in a foreign country, so oftti 
discounted by the fact that one m«te 
moetly thoee of one's own ooantrysen 
who do not travel with the objed of 
learning the language, the actual chings 
from an English dasa-room to a forogn 
one, with a totally different point of view, 
the absolute atmoephere, mutt mean re- 
newal of mental energy, if not of actual 
knowledge, and, best of all, the liftin| 
out of the narrow groove into which thi 
teacher of languages is so prone to fall. 

At the University Oollege of St. Senan 
this August, three different courses mtt 
offered—a higher, an intermediate, aid 
an elementary. Of the two latter I can 
only speak from hearsay, as they wtstt 
held simultaneously with the higher one, 
which was too interesting to sacrifice; hut 
several teachers attending both the nter- 
mediate and the elementary counst for 
the sake of studying methods, ext re as e d 
disappointment, and said that Sn^ith 
was far too much used as a medum of 
instruction, and that the lessons in general 
were too elementary for the students of 
the year. I believe these counes were 
conducted by the Professors of bcal col- 
leges or lycdes^ whereas the cours mtpMeur 
was in the hands of four Professors from 
the University of Rennes, the Principal of 
the St Servan College, and M. Ziind- 
Burguet. 

Naturally, the lecturers were not all 
equally able or sympathetic ; but tht sub- 
jects chosen covered a sufficiently wide 
field of interest, and, for the eameet 
student, there was much to learn from all 
of them. A particularly brilliant series 
of lectures was given by M. Fettu on 
French Politica] and Social Institutions, 



HOLIDAY COUESE IMPRESSIONS 



187 



four of which, by general request, were 
devoted to the sabjeot of ' L'Organisation 
de rEnseignement.' Two sectioiiB — (a) 
Old Bomances and Up-to-date Novels, 
(h) Modem Poetry— completed the pro- 
gramme of the ordinary coarse ; besides 
which there was a oonrse of Experimental 
and Practical Phonetics (fee, 15 francs), 
and for students of Old French, a course 
on Celtic Language and Literature, by 
M. J. Loth, Doyen de la Faculty des 
Lettres de rUniversit^ de Rennes (fee, 
50 francs). 

After each lecture, opportunity was 
given for questions and discussion ; in all 
sections (except phonetics) subjects for 
composition were set; and in the two 
literature courses students, were further 
invited to undertake verbal explanations 
of set portions of the text — a most useful 
and profitable exerdse. There were two 
or three teachers (hailing, I think, from 
tha 'Fatherland') who criticized a lec- 
turer's treatment of Victor Hugo's verse 
as savouring too much of the schoolroom ; 
but, judging by the attendance at these 
particular lectures, and also by the 
greater number of compositions sent in, 
I doubt if this opinion was generally 
shared. If the lecturer did err at all on 
the score of a too minute examination of 
metre and rhythm, in justice I must add, 
that the Professors, as a whole, freely 
admitted that the standard of advance- 
ment in the students of the year had 
taken them by surprise, greatly exceeding 
that of any preceding year. 

When I have said that the phonetics 
were in the hands of M. Ziind-Burguet, no 
one will be surprised to hear that, in ten 
lessons, of from two to two and a half 
hours each, he not only covered the whole 
ground of practical phonetics and gave 
the most able demonstrations, both with 
and without apparatus, but that he found 
time during the last five lessons for prac- 
tical work with the students of a somewhat 
large class. As a teacher of phonetics of 
some years' standing, I confess to thinking 
the examination on the tenth day, with 
its 10-franc little diploma, rather a pity. 



and to doubting the standard of efficiency 
that could be expected (in the time) from 
students to whom, for the most part, the 
subject was absolutely new. 

It seemed aUo somewhat regrettable 
that so clever a man should think it 
necessary to allude quite so often to the 
great pioneers in the science as 'nos 
adversaires,' to inveigh with such undis- 
guised contempt and spite against the 
principles promulgated by them, and to 
spend so much time trying to convince 
his hearers that to him alone were due 
the real discoveries in phonetics. Further, 
after his most elaborate demonstrations of 
the importance of the production and 
character of voyeUea fermia^ mayennes, 
eta, the doctrine of approximate correct^ 
ness which he afterwards preached seemed 
somewhat illogical : ' * Do not strive after 
a Parisian or any other accent— open your 
mouth in this or that manner, put your 
tongue in this or that position, and you 
will have quUe a good enough a, «, r, etc 
Nobody will find any fault with you, nor 
expect any more of you.' The lecturer 
further struck me as capricious, sometimes 
spending long periods over one student, 
and sometimes accepting sound after 
sound (to my ear) of very questionable 
accuracy. 

But as a real practical introduction to 
the study of phonetics, and a splendid 
start, nothing better could have been 
desired ; and, in his last lecture, M. 
Ztind-Burguet's advice to teachers, both 
as to methods of teaching and as to what 
noi to teach, showed not only great ex- 
perience in teaching, but also great insight 
into the methods of dealing suocessfuUy 
with young children. 

As a last word, I would strongly advise 
students wishing to attend this course to 
apply early for admiuion into the families 
of the different College Professors and 
others who receive guests. Most of them 
have not large villas or houses, and can 
only receive a limited number. I think 
there were six in the house I stayed at, 
not counting three who slept near by 
and came in for meals. These villas, 



188 



MODER.V LANGUAGE TEACHING 



apparently, get filled ap as early as June, 
and many regrett I heard from thoee who, 
having applied too late, were obliged to 
be content with the ordinary hoteU or 
pennona. Bat the nomber of English in 
the St. Malo diatriot \b now so great that, 
unless one is in a Frenoh fanuly, the 
opportunities of speaking the language 
are very small ; and, orer and above this 
very important point, I mast pay a 
tribute of the most sincere recognition to 
the sympathetic interest, the never-failing 
kindness of the Professors and their 
families themselves. While you are with 
them you are their one occupation, both 



in school and out ; and there is absolataly 
nothing they will not do for yoa — (nm 
the extricating of your luggage from the 
Douane and the hands of the harpy- 
commissionnaires, and the daUy attentioB 
to your smallest wish, to the arrangement 
of boating parties, picnics, concerts ; and 
these quite independently of the formally 
organized ezcunions in connection with 
the course itself. 

A Ust of these private houses and others 
can be obtained from the director of the 
course. M. F. Gohin, Lycte de Rennes. 
L. H. Althaur. 



ANNUAL EXAMINATION IN GERMAN, CONDUCTED BY 
THE SPRACHVEREIN. 



With a view to encouraging the study of 
German in ESngUsh schools, the London 
branch of the Allgemeiner Deutscher 
Spraohverein decided to hold an annual 
examination in German. A special com- 
mittee was appointed, and the following 
scheme drawn up : 

The examination should be open to boys 
and girls under nineteen, and should be 
controlled by a Board consisting of two 
moderators and two examiners. The 
moderators elected for the first examina- 
tion were Professor Rippmann and Mr. 
Stogdon ; the examiners, Dr. Breul and 
Mr. Milner-Barry. The date fixed for the 
first examination was March 27, 1908. 

It was decided that candidates should 
be divided into the following groups : 

A. Boys and girls neither of whose 
parents are German, and who since their 
twelfth birthday have not spent two years 
in Germany. 

B. Boys and girls one or both of whose 
parents are German, or who since their 
twelfth birthday have passed two years in 
Germany. 

Candidates of both groups (A and B) 
should be examined in one of the two 
sections — I. under nineteen, or II. under 
seventeen — on the day of examination. 

The examination should, if possible, 
include a written and an oral test. 



The written examination for Section I. 
should consiBt of papers containing — 

(a) German passages, proee and verse, 
for unseen translation into English. Time 
allowed, three hours. 

(b) Knglish passages for translation into 
German. A choice of subjects for a 
German essay ; some of the subjects 
should deal with works by Goethe, 
Schiller, Leasing. Time allowed, three 
hours. 

The standard aimed at in this section 
should be that of the Cambridge Entrance 
Scholarships. 

The written examination for Section II. 
should consiBt of papers containing — 

(a) German passages, prose and verse, 
for unseen translation into English. Time 
allowed, three hours. 

(6) An English passage and some English 
sentences for translation into Grerman. A 
choice of subjects for a German essay. 
Time allowed, three hours. 

The standard aimed at in this section 
should be that of the London University 
Matriculation. 

The examination of 1908 proved very 
successful, and the committee has much 
pleasure in announcing its intention of 
holding a similar examination in 1909. 
The exact date will be fixed later. 



ANNUAL EXAMINATION IN GERMAN 



189 



It was found impossible this year, owing 
ohiefly to lack of funds, to conduct an oral 
test, but it is hoped that one will be in- 
cluded in future examinations. 

It has been decided that in the examina- 
tion of 1009 the cpmpoeition paper of each 
section shall include a choice of subjects, 
both literary and general, for a German 
essay. No special authors will be set 

Number of schools competing in the 
examination of 1908 : 85 boys' schools ; 
18 girls' schools ; 1 mixed. 

Number of candidates : 124 boys, 61 
girls— total 185. 

These candidates were distributed as 
follows : 



SedionL 




Boys (Group A) 

„ (Group B) ... 
Girls (Group A) 

„ (Group B) ... 


... 46 
... 6 
... 30 


Total ... 


... 82 


Sedim IL 




Boys (Group A) 

„ (Group B) 
Girls (Group A) 

„ (Group B) ... 


... 64 
... 8 
... 29 
... 2 



Total 



103 



The following awards have been made 
on the results of the examination of 1908 : 

A Trctvelling Scholanhip of Ten GhLineaa. 

Mr. J. W. Roberts (Section I., A), Man- 
chester Grammar School. 

First Prizes of Two OuiTieas in Books, 

Miss M. Brandebourg (Section L, A), 
Portsmouth High School. 

Mr. A. £. C. T. Dooner (Section IL, A), 
Tonbridge School. 

Mr. D. McKillop (Section IL, A), Man- 
chester Grammar SohooL 

Mr. A. Ryder (Section IL. B), Victoria 
College, Jersey. 

Miss O. J. Flecker (Section IL, A), 
Ladies' Oollege, Cheltenham. 

Miss M. Kdnitzer (Section IL, B), 
Wycombe Abbey SchooL 



Second Prizes of One O^uinea in Books, 

Mr. W. G. Glendinning (Section I., A), 
Queen's College, Belfast. 

Mr. N. 6. Jopson (Section L, A), Mer^ 
chant Taylors' School, Crosby. 

Mr. A. G. A. Hellmers (Section IL. B), 
Dulwich College. 

Mr. M. C. A. Korten (Section IL. 6), 
Dulwich College. 

Mr. W. Schaible (Section II. . B), City 
of London School. 

The following candidates have been 
awarded certificates declaring that they 
passed the examination with credit : 

Section I,, Oroup A. 

Mr. H. Cooper, Manchester Grammar 
School. 

Mr. J. L. Fryers, Merchant Taylors' 
School, London. 

Mr. A. Roberts, Merchant Taylors' 
School, Crosby. 

Miss L. Wilson, Blackheath High SchooL 

MiBS S. Margoliouth. Blackheath High 
SchooL 

MiBS C. Stewart, Bedford High SohooL 

Section I. , Oroup B, 
Mr. J. G. Davidson. City of London 
SchooL 
Mr. W. Faupel, Wimbledon College. 

Section 11,^ Oroup A, 

Mr. H. M. Pickthom, Aldenham School. 

Mr. P. M. Pascall. Merchant Taylors' 
School, London. 

Mr. W. G. R. Hinchliffe. liverpool 
College. 

Mr. W. G. Campbell, Mill Hill SchooL 

MiBS W. M. Packer. Cheltenham Ladies' 
College. 

MiBS M. S. Kynnersley, Bedford High 
SchooL 

Miss S. Wells. Bedford High SchooL 

Section IL, Oroup B. 

Mr. W. F. Lindemann. Dulwich College. 
Mr. H. Holthusen, Dulwich College. 
Miss M. P. Reiche, Bedford High 
SohooL 



190 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



In additioii to the abore- mentioned 
awardi, thirty-ei^t candidatee have re- 
ceived oertificatee declaring that they have 
satisfied the examiners. 

The committee wish to express their 



gratification that so many sehools sap- 
ported this first examinatkm, and Tentme 
to hope that next year the entries will be 
more numerous. 



REVIEWS. 



SKaJceBptare'tMoAdh. Edited|by Assistant- 
Professor F. Moorman, with the assist- 
anoe of H. P. Junkxb. (Leipiig: 
Teabner, 1908.) Text, pp. 87 ; notes 
(separately bound), pp. 70. Price 1 
Mark 20 Pf. ; paper covers, 1 Mark.) 
This edition, intended primarily for 
German schools which teach English on 
the * direct method,' appears adequately 
to fulfil its purpose. The text is that of 
the Globe Shakespeare, the introduction 
summarizes the most important points con- 
cerning the date, sources, and characterisa- 
tion of the play, and the notes are foil, 
clear, and apt. The edition can be recom- 
mended for foreign students. 

U Fie tTun PoiU ^ Coleridge, Par 

Joseph Atnakd. (Paris : Librairie 

HachetteetCie, 1907.) 

M. Aynard has added yet another to 

those valuable studies of English poets 

which have recently been published by 

Frenchmen. His criticism is sympathetic, 

understanding, and often profound, and it 

is a pleasure to read what it has so evidently 

been a pleasure to write. He is at his best 



in his treatment of the mmuu mirabHie, 
1797-1798, and nowhere better than in his 
discussion of the great poems. Thus: 
* Le Yienx Marin, c*est nn cas de posssssiop 
par le remords, ses visions ne nous sont 
pas donn^ nn instant oomme vraies, 
c'est \k leur vraisemblanoe, lenr v^t^' 
And again : ' Ses potaies sont des visions^ 
mais doming et mises eB\ o&uvre par mi 
esprit qui n'a jamais ^t^ ^lus pr&s de la 
rMit^ que dans oette ann^ de bonheur.' 
The oonmients on Coleridge's phUosophy 
and criticism are equally to the point, and 
M. Aynard's book is, as a whole, well worth 
reading. Though one may not invariabty 
agree with his opinions, it is impossible to 
doubt his conviction that, in spite of the 
incompleteness of Coleridge's achievements, 
*tant qu'on fera des fouilles dans oss 
mines myst^rieuses on y trouvera des 
tr^rs. ' That, at any rate, is the right 
spirit in which to approach the work of 
a great master. M. Aynard brings witii 
him always 'a heart that watches and 
receives.' 



CORRESPONDENCE. 

UNIVERSITY ENTRANCE SCHOLARSHIPS IN MODERN LANGUAGES. 



As was recently announced in your 
columns, Worcester College, Oxford, 
offered an exhibition in Modem Lan- 
guages for competition last June. The some- 
what extraordinary regulations goveming 
the competition seem likely, if adopted 
elsewhere, to exert a deleterious influence 
upon Modem Language study in schools. 
In brief, candidates were allowed to offer 
French or German, but not both, and 
were also asked to offer a special period 
of literature to be chosen by themselves. 
The reason for thus excluding one of these 
two school languages seems to be that the 



Oxford Final School examines either in 
French or German — presumably either in 
Romance or Teutonic philology — and the 
College, therefore, feels bound to respect 
the arrangements of the Final School in 
offering exhibitions to candidates. 

I venture to think that this course is 
highly inadvisable. There is no reason 
why an exhibitioner in French should 
know a single word of German ; yet the 
study of Romance philology witiiont a 
sound knowledge of German is a hopeless 
task. 

Again, the average schoolboy is made 



FROM HERE AND THERE 



191 



to nin a one-lagged race : he has probably 
spent as mnch time on one language as 
upon the other, and has no chanoe of 
showing any resnlt of one-half of his 
labours. Finally, the regulation is in- 
consistent, seeing that candidates for 
classical scholarships must offer both 
Latin and Oreek : if two languages in one 
case, why not in the other f 

The general adoption of this regulation 
will lead to undue specialization upon one 
language in schools, with its attendant 
eyils. The special period of literature is 
also a doubtful point for schoolboys ; a 
general paper would proyide as adequate a 
test as they can be expected to stand, and 



would remove all temptation to cram 
names, dates, and quotations. 

This seems, therefore, a case in which 
our Association might make some recom- 
mendation to colleges which offer Modem 
Language exhibitions. The regulations 
governing these will certainly influence 
the character of school-teaching, and I 
cannot conceive that any benefit to that 
teaching will accrue by specialization upon 
French in preference to German, or upon 
German in preference to French. 

H. J. Ghattor. 

KxKO Kdward VIL Sohool, 

SHBrmu). 

July 13, 1908. 



PROM HERE AND THERE, 



Thb Annual General Meeting of the 
Modem Language Association will be held 
at Oxford on Tuesday and Wednesday, 
January 12 and 13. 

Ik Ik Ik 

We have received an important Memo- 
randum explanatory of the resolutions 
adopted by the Scottish Modem Language 
Association regarding the present position 
and future organization of Modem Lan- 
guage study in Scotland. Extracts from 
it will appear in our next issue. 
Ik Ik Ik 

The library of the Board of Education 
has now been transferred to the new 
building in Gharles Street, Whitehall. 
Advantage has been taken of this oppor- 
tunity to re-classify the books on a new 
and more scientific principle. 
Ik Ik Ik 

On October 22, at 7.30 p.m., M. Jules 
Gautier, Directeur de I'Enseignement 
Secondaire, will deliver a lecture on 
' L'livolution de TEnseignement Secon- 
daire en France depuis Napoleon I.,' in the 
Lecture Hall attached to the Bridsh 
Education Section of the Franco- British 
Exhibition. 

% % % 

It is intended to revive Milton's Saimon 
AffonitisB next December in London in 



connection with the poet's Tercentenary 
celebration. This play was acted for the 
first time in April, 1900, when it was 
produced for the Elizabethan Stage Society, 
and was given in the Lecture Theatre of 
the Victoria and Albert Museum. The 
performance was under the direction of 
Mr. William Poel, who will be responsible 
again for the stage management. Repre- 
sentations of the tragedy will also be 
given in Oxford, Cambridge, Liverpool, 
and Manchester. 

:k Ik t, 
Cambridoe Univebsitt, Nswnham 
CoLLEOE.~The Mary Stevenson Scholar- 
ship (£35 a year) has been awarded to 
Miss L. D. Kendall (King Edward's School, 
Birmingham), and the Mathilde Blind 
Scholarship to Miss J. M. G. Alexander 
(Royal Academy, Irvine), both for Modem 
Languages. 

Ik Tk Tk 
' Liverpool UNXVEEaiiT.— The Council 
have instituted two new chairs, one of 
Celtic studies and the other medieval 
archeology. To the first they have 
appointed Professor Kuno Meyer, who 
already holds the endowed chair of German 
in the University. The new chair is un- 
endowed. Dr. Meyer's appointment is a 
reoognition of his eminence as a Celtic 



192 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



•ehokr, and pkoM him oiBciAlly at the 
head of the tchool of Celtic, which he 
has founded in the UniTenity. To the 
eeoond chair the Ooandl has appointed 
Mr. Francii Pierrepoint Barnard, 1C.A., 
F.S.A., of Pembroke College, Oxford. 
This chair is also unendowed. Mr. Bar- 
nard has had a distingoished career as a 
student and investigator in his own 
subjects, and his appointment will add 
greatly to the strength of the staff of the 
schools of history and archeology. 

Tk Tk Tk 
LoiTDON Univerbitt.— The following 
courses, of ten lectures each, are open free 
to all teachers in London secondary and 
elementary schools, and to teachers in 
training: (1) 'Outlines of French Litera- 
ture,' by Miss F. C. Johnson, M.A., 
October 14 and following Wedneedays, at 
6 p.m.; (2) 'Some Aspects of John 
Ruskin,* by Ifiss C. F. E. Spurgeon (Final 
English Honours, Oxford), October 10 and 
following Saturdays, at 10.30 a.m. 

Tk Tk % 
London Uniyxbbitt.— Professor Kuno 
Meyer, of the University of Liverpooh 
has accepted an invitation to give a 
course of lectures next session at University 
College on Celtic languages and their 
literatures. The course has been arranged 
by the generosity of a private benefactor, 
and is intended to prepare the way for 
the institution of a permanent lectureship 
or professorship in Celtic. 

t, :k :k 

London Universitt. — Scholarships for 
Modem Languages have been awarded on 
the results of the Scholarships Examina- 
tion, held at the University in July, to 
students who have passed an Intermediate 
Examination, or the Preliminary Scientific 
Examination, Part L, as follows : 

University Scholarships of £50 a year, 
tenable for one year, to Irene C. Dukes, 
University College, Ella M. Marchant, 
Royal HoUoway College, and Edna Small- 
wood, Birkbeck College, for English; 
Catherine Andersson, private study, and 
Hubert B. Kenmiis, University Coll^^e, 



for French ; Margaret F. Richej, private 
study, for German. 

A Gilchrist Scholarship for Women of 
£40 a year, tenable for two years, to Lodse 
Soldan (Bedford College for Women) tat 
German, who qualified also for a Uni- 
versity Scholarship. 

Ik :k % 

London Ukiyxbsitt, UHiYBBsirr 
CoLLBOK.— The Andrews additional (en- 
trance) Scholarship for Modem Laogoagss 
(£80) has been awarded to J. D. Whyte, 
Dulwich CoUege. 

Tk Tk Tk 

London UNivxitsrrY.—The Holiday 
Course for Foreigners again attracted a 
large number of students from many 
oountriee. Owing to the desire to make the 
work thoroughly efficient, only 266 applica- 
tions were accepted, and between sixty and 
seventy had to be refused admission to the 
Course. 

Tk Tk % 

Manchxstbr UNivEBsrrr.— The Early 
English Text Society's Prize has been 
awarded to A. F. Lund. 

Tk % :k 

Oxford UNnniasrrT. — Mr. David 
Nichol Smith. M.A. Edin., Professor of 
English Language and Literature, Arm- 
strong College, Newoastle-on-Tyne, has 
been appointed to the new Goldsmiths' 
Readership in English. 

Professor Kichol Smith took his degree 
in Edinburgh in 1895 with first - class 
honours in English, and shortly after 
gained the Heriot Fellowship, in competi- 
tion for which he wrote a thesis on 
' Dryden and the Rise of Literary Criticism 
in England.' After some years in Paris, 
where he studied at the Sorbonne, and 
occupied himself with research on French 
literary criticism, he returned to Edin- 
burgh, and devoted himself to literary 
work, publishing a translation of Brune- 
ti^'s 'Essays in French Literature,' 
editing the 'Art Po^que' of Boileau, 
Shakespeare's 'Henry YIIL' and 'King 
Lear/ Dryden's 'Essay of Dramatic Poetiy,' 
and Hazlitt*s 'Essays on Poetry.' From 



FROM HERE AND THERE 



193 



1902 to 1904 he was assistant to the 
Professor of English at Glasgow, when he 
brought out a volume of ' Eighteenth 
Century Essays on Shakespeare/ The 
stipend of the Reader will consist of the 
interest on £10,000, the gift of the Gold- 
smiths' Oompanj, and this will be 
augmented by from £150 to £200 a year 
from other sources. 

% :k :k 

Oxford Univeiwitt.— Mr. Erich H. 
Budde, Ph.D., Jena, has been appointed to 
the new additional Lectureship in German. 

Dr. Budde is a distinguished young 
German scholar who has studied at the 
Universities of Munich, Vienna, and Jena. 
He took his doctor's degree at the last- 
named University in 1906. 
:k % t, 

Oxford Unitkrsitt.— The following is 
an analysis of those who were successful in 
(1) the Honour School of English Lan- 
guage and Literature : 

Men. Women, Total. 

Class L ... 1 4 5 

Class IL ... 5 7 12 

Class IIL... 4 15 

Class IV. ... 2 1 3 

12 13 25 

(2) The Honour School of Modem Lan- 
guages: 

Men. Women. Total. 
Class L ... 1 G 2 G 8G 

Class IL ... — 2 F, 1 G 2 F. 1 G 
Class III.{2F.1G, 2F.1G 4 F,^2^G 

Class IV.... IF — IF 



8F, 2G, 4F. 4G 6 F, 6 G, 
IS IS 

(Pss French, G= German, S= Spanish.) 

1^ 1^ 1^ 

Oxford Univirsitt, Worcbstie 
CoLLXOX.— H. E. Truelove, of Henry VIII. 
School, Sheffield, has been elected to an 
Exhibition in French. 

:k Tk % 

SOTTTHAltFTON, HaRTLIT UNIVERSITY 

CoLiXGS.— Mr. T. S. Sterling, B.A., 
Cantab., has been appointed Lecturer 
inEnf^liah. 



Mr. A. B. FoRSTER, of King's School, 
Rochester, has been appointed to a master- 
ship at Mill Hill School 
% % % 
Miss H. Powell, of the Cambridge Day 
Training Colleges, has been appointed 
Principal of St. Mary's College, Pad- 
dington. 

1^ 1^ ^ 
Mr. G. H. Shepherd has prAented to 
King Edward VI. Grammar School, Louth, 
a bust in white marble of Tennyson, who 
was at the school in 1820, with his father, 
William Shepherd. The bust is the work 
of Mr. H. Garland. 

^ ^ H^ 
Mr. H. J. Chaytor, of King Edward 
VII. 's School, Sheffield, has been appointed 
Headmaster of Plymouth College. 
% :k Ik 
Mr. K. Lonsdale, KA., has been 
appointed French Master at Maidenhead 
Modem School. 

:k :k :k ^ 

The Headmistress of an Eeole Primaire 
Sup&riewre wishes for a young English 
lady au pair. Ample facilities for acquir- 
ing French. Application should be made 
to the Hon. Secretary. 45, South Hill 
Park, Hampstead, London, N.W. 
% % % 

Among the changes announced in the 
regulations for 1909 of the Cambridge 
Local Examinations, we notice that spoken 
French and German will be included in 
the subjects for the preliminary examina- 
tion, as well as the examination of senior 
and junior candidates. 

% % % 

Professor Kirkpatriok, speaking on 
< Our Edinburgh Vacation Courses,' referred 
to the teaching of German, and declared 
that 'it was lamentable that the subject 
was so miserably neglected in this country. ' 

In Russia and F^unce (he said), and in 
many other countries, German was one of 
the principal staples of education, and 
they all knew that German was absolutely 
indispensable to the clsssical scholar, the 
man of sdenoe, the man of literature, the 
man of businees. None of these people 



194 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



oould poanblj get on withoat a knowledge 
of both French and Oennan. Thej often 
heard it eaid that theee ' horrid Germane ' 
were cutting them ont in eeience and in 
boeineee. The reaaon wae simply this, 
that Germans were more indnstriooSi more 
persevering; and, instead of setting np 
hoetile tarifb in this oountry to block ont 
the 'horrid Germans,' it wonld be in- 
finitely better if the British yonth wonld 
learn the German tongue. He conld not 
understand why the educational authorities 
of their schools did not insist upon the 
teaching of French and German. It 
seemed to him that their schools and their 
educational authorities had killed German, 
which was one of the things they were 
moet in need of. 



* Ceci bst jjl Vn dm L'^JkWLS.'— Tht 
disoeming reader will find the following 
free oomposition by a oandidafce from a 
bojs' sehool interesting, not only in ' 
respect to its fonn, but stUl more so as 
a oonmient upon sehool life from the point 
of Tiew of a member of that laige class 
covered by the term 'average boy ' : 

'La vie chez une ^le anglaise n'est 
pas bon dans I'^le, mais tr^ bon dans 
les champs. 81 un gar9on n'eet pas habile, 
il a toigours lee impositions, mais s*il n'est 
pas bon anx jeus, 11 n'a pas les imposi- 
tions, n nous faut plaoer nos impositions, 
nommte par les gardens impdts, dans une 
botte, et si nous n'y pla^ons pas, nous 
avons encore une imposition. Oeci est la 
vie de r^le.' 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



Journal of Education, July, 1908 : 
The True Meaning of * Free School ' (A. F. 
Leaoh) ; The Holiday Courses of the 
Alliance Fran^aise. August, 1908: The 
Ourriculum of American High Schools 
(W. H. Winch); A Model Literature 
Lesson (Ethel Dawson) ; National Educa- 
tion and the Public Schools (A Public 
School Master). September, 1908 : Psy- 
chology in Schools (W. H. Winch). 

School World, July, 1908 : School 
Journeys (C. J. Rose) ; The Teaching of 
English in American High Schools (W. H. 
Winch). August, 1908: The Ck>st of 
Efficient Secondary Education (R. E. 
Thwaites) ; Tense-Transition in the Reform 
Method of Teaching a Modem Language 
(R. H. Pardee) ; The Milton Tercentenary 
at Cambridge (Fanny Johnson) ; The 
Education of Girls (Mrs. Woodhouse). 
September, 1908 : The Correction of Faulty 
English (N. L. Frazer). 

Educational Times, August, 1908 : 
The German Continuation School (T. 
Hannan). 

School, July, 1908 : The Real Dangers 
of the Examination System (F. H. Colson). 



August, 1908: The Prussian *Knaben- 
mittelschule ' (J. Drever) ; The Ideals of 
an Assistant Master (E. C. Kittson) : At- 
tention (H. Bompas Smith). September, 
1908: Education in China (J. Shillaker). 

Die Nsubrsn Spraohbn, June, 1908 : 
Der Bildungswert der Neueren Sprachen 
im Mittelsohnlunterricht (M. Forster) ; 
Leitsatze fUr den Neusprachlichen Unter- 
richt an der Bayerischen Oberrealschule 
(C. Eidam). 

Les Languss Modsrnes, July. 1908: 
Le Chant dans les Classes de Langues 
Modemes (F. Jehl) ; La Composition de 
Langue litrang^re au Baocalaur^t (S. 
Hirsch). 

Outre Manche, June, 1908 : Les Ten- 
dances de rEnseignement en Am^rique 
(M. Farrington). 

Bolletino di Filolooia Modeena, 
May, 1908 : Questloni di Metodo (G. 
GuUi). July, 1908 : L' Insegnamento del 
Francese a mezzo del Grammofono (G. 
Malavasi) ; II Metodo Diretto e i suoi 
Ostacoli (R. D* Ella). 



MODERN LANGUAGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH THB ASSISTANCE OF 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A. A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. No. 7 



NOVEMBER, 1908 



THE STUDY OP GERMAN IN PUBLIC SECONDARY 

SCHOOLS. 



The following letter has been 
addressed to the President of the 
Board of Education : 

Sir, 

We, the undersigned, desire, 
on behalf of the bodies whose 
names are appended to our signa- 
tures, to represent to you the 
serious neglect into which the 
study of the German language in 
public secondary schools is falling. 

That the number of pupils in 



these schools who learn (German is 
small is incontestable, but we have 
reason to believe that in the schools 
below the first rank this number is 
not only small, but diminishing. 

Evidence of this is supplied by 
the following tables, which show 
the number of candidates who 
entered for the Oxford and Cam- 
bridge Local Examinations in cer- 
tain years, and the number and 
percentage who ofiered (German : 



OXFORD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS. 
JUNIOR. 



Year. No. of GandidAtM. 


No. taking 
German. 


Peroentege. 


1895 

1900 

1905 

1907 


3,226 
4,455 
7,011 
8,327 


440 
441 
605 
479 


13-7 
9-8 
7-2 
5-7 



14 



194 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



could possibly get on without a knowledge 
of both French and German. Thej often 
heard it said that these ' horrid Germans ' 
were catting them ont in science and in 
bosiness. The reaaon was simply this, 
that Germans were more industrious, more 
persevering; and, instead of setting up 
hostile tariffs in this country to block out 
the 'horrid Germans,* it would be in- 
finitely better if the British youth would 
learn the German tongue. He could not 
understand why the educational authorities 
of their schools did not insist upon the 
teaching of French and German. It 
seemed to him that their schools and their 
educational authorities had killed German, 
which was one of the things they were 
most in need of. 



*ClCI BST Lk YtM D1 L'^b00LS.'~Tll« 

disceming rsader will find the following 
free oompontion by a candidate from a 
boys' school interesting, not only in 
respect to its form, but still more so as 
a conmient upon school life from the point 
of view of a member of that large daaa 
covered by the term ' average boy ' : 

* La vie chez une ^le anglaise n*est 
pas bon dans T^cole, mais tr^ bon dans 
les champs. 8i un gar9on n'est pas habile, 
il a toigours les impositions, mais s*il n'est 
pas bon aux jeus, il n'a pas les imposi- 
tions, n nous faut placer nos impositions, 
nommte par les gardens impdts, dans une 
botte, et si nous n'y pla^ons pas, nous 
avons encore une imposition. Oeci est la 
vie de T^le.' 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



Journal of Education, July, 1908 : 
The True Meaning of • Free School ' (A. F. 
Leach) ; The Holiday Courses of the 
Alliance Fran^aise. August, 1908: The 
Curriculum of American High Schools 
(W. H. Winch); A Model Literature 
Lesson (Ethel Dawson) ; National Educa- 
tion and the Public Schools (A Public 
School Master). September. 1908 : Psy- 
chology in Schools (W. H. Winch). 

School Wokld, July, 1908 : School 
Journeys (C. J. Rose) ; The Teaching of 
English in American High Schools ( W. H. 
Winch). August, 1908: The Cost of 
Efficient Secondary Education (R. £. 
Thwaites) ; Tense-Transition in the Reform 
Method of Teaching a Modem Language 
(R. H. Pardee) ; The Milton Tercentenary 
at Cambridge (Fanny Johnson) ; The 
Education of Girls (Mrs. Woodhouse). 
September, 1908 : The Correction of Faulty 
English (N. L. Frazer). 

Educational Times, August, 1908 : 
The German Continuation School (T. 
Hannan). 

School, July, 1908 : The Real Dangers 
of the Examination System (F. H. (I!ol8on). 



August, 1908: The Prussian <Knaben- 
mittelschule ' (J. Drever) ; The Ideals of 
an Assistant Master (E. C. Kittson) ; At- 
tention (H. Bompas Smith). September, 
1908 : Education in China (J. Shillaker). 

Die Neuerem Sprachbn, June, 1908 : 
Der Bildungswert der Neueren Sprachen 
im Mittelsohulunterricht (M. Forster) ; 
Leitsatze fUr den Neusprachlichen Unter- 
richt an der Bayerischen Oberrealschule 
(C. Eidam). 

Les Langues Modebnes, July, 1908 : 
Le Chant dans les Classes de Langues 
Modemes (F. Jehl) ; La Composition de 
Langue l^ng^re au Baccalaur^t (S. 
Hirsch). 

Outre Manche, June, 1908 : Les Ten- 
dances de I'Enseignement en Am^rique 
(M. Farrington). 

Bolletino di Filolooia Modbrna, 
May, 1908 : Questioni di Metodo (G. 
Gulli). July, 1908 : L' Insegnamento del 
Franoese a mezzo del Grammofono (G. 
Malavasi) ; II Metodo Diretto e i suoi 
Ostacoli (R. D* Elia). 



THE STUDY OF GERMAN 



197 



effect that the Universities find 
it increasingly difficult to obtain 
students prepared to take up the 
higher study of German. 

We are of opinion that this 
decline of German as a secondary 
school subject is a matter of grave 
national importance — 

(a) From the point of view of 
general literary culture. 

(b) From the point of view of 
the public services. 

(c) From the point of view of 
practical utility, considering the 
value of German for serious students 
in all branches of knowledge, as 
well as for those taking up a profes- 
sional, commercial, or technological 
career. 

{d) From the point of view of 
rendering a good understanding 
between the two peoples less easy. 

Taking this view of the important 
place German should hold in the 
curriculum of the secondary school^ 
we welcome the recent change in 
the Regulations of your Board, the 
effect of which we understand to be 
that, so long as provision is made 
for teaching Latin to pupils who 
may require it, the Board vrill offer 
no objection to a school making 
French and German the two prin- 
cipal foreign languages in its 
curriculum. 

We would at the same time 
represent to you that much more 
must be done if the unfortunate 
decay of German is to be checked, 
and we therefore venture to suggest 
that your Board should consider 
the desirability of calling the atten- 
tion of educational authorities. 



governing bodies, and the prin- 
cipals of secondary schools, to the 
steady decline in the study of 
German, and should by means of 
a circular, as in the case of Latin, 
or such other method as may be 
thought fit, submit to those author- 
ities and to the public generally 
the many weighty and urgent 
reasons for regarding an acquaint- 
ance vrith German as being of the 
first importance to great numbers 
of young men and women, and a 
widespread knowledge of the lan- 
guage a national necessity. 

We would urge, moreover, that 
the Board should encourage and 
foster schools of the type of the 
German 'Realschule' and 'Ober- 
realschule,' in which two modem 
languages, but not Latin, are taught. 
The latter of these in Prussia ranks 
in standing with the Gymnasium, 
and its leaving certificate confers 
the same rights. Of schools de- 
voting special attention to modem 
as against classical languages, there 
are at present in this country very 
few. 

Lastly we would suggest that it 
should^ as a general mle, be re- 
quired that schools should make 
provision for the teaching of Ger- 
man to those pupils who wish to 
learn it, as it is now required that 
provision should be made for the 
teaching of Latin. 

In conclusion we desire to point 
out — 

(a) That the study of English is 
encouraged in German schools of 
every type. 

(b) That England seems to be 

14—2 



196 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



OXFOBD LOCAL EXAMINATIONS-amMHMsi. 
SENIOR 



Ymt. 


No.ofCuidid«te8. 


No. taking 
GennuL 


PeioentigB. 


1895 

1900 

1906 

1907 


1,414 
1,926 
3,664 
6,370 


351 
282 
414 
360 


24-2 

14-6 

11-2 

6-6 



CAMBRIDGE LOCAL EXAMINATIONS. 
8ENI0B. 



Year. 


No. ofOandidatoa. 


No. taUng 
Gennan. 


Percentage. 


1896 

1900 

1906 


Boys. 

680 

921 

1,721 


Oirls. 

1,272 
1,366 
2,016 


Boys. 

80 

62 

108 


Girls. 

426 
313 
216 


Boys. 

11-7 
6-6 
6-3 


Oirla. 

33-5 
22-7 
10-7 







JUNIOR. 








1895 


5,033 


2,696 


396 


557 


7-5 


20-6 


1900 


6,413 


2,964 


319 


483 


5-9 


16-3 


1906 


4,671 


3,034 


345 


314 


7-3 


10-3 



It will be seen from the above 
figures that the percentage who 
offer Grerman is steadily diminish- 
ing, and that Glerman as a school 
subject is being gradually elbowed 
out. 

In this connexion we would 
bring to your notice the fact that 
the Eeports of the Education De- 
partment of the London Chamber 
of Commerce have repeatedly called 
attention to the inadequacy of the 
supply of candidates for clerkships 
who are acquainted vrith foreign 
languages. It is from the schools 
which send in their pupils for the 
Oxford and Cambridge Local Ex- 



aminations that the great bulk of 
clerks come. 

Further evidence of this lament- 
able decline in the study of German 
is supplied by the Eeport of your 
Board for 1906-07, which says : 
' German in Wales, as in England, 
is finding difficulty in maintaining 
its ground' (p. 83) ; and the Report 
on Secondary Education in Scot- 
land for 1897, in which occurs ihe 
statement : ' German can hardly be 
said to be holding its ground. . • . 
Inquiry shows that in England the 
phenomenon is still more strikingly 
apparent' (p. 23). 

Evidence is also before us to the 



THE STUDY OF GERMAN 



197 



effect that the Universities find 
it increasingly difficult to obtain 
students prepared to take up the 
higher study of German. 

We are of opinion that this 
decline of German as a secondary 
school subject is a matter of grave 
national importance — 

(a) From the point of view of 
general literary culture. 

(b) From the point of view of 
the public services. 

(c) From the point of view of 
practical utility, considering the 
value of German for serious students 
in all branches of knowledge, as 
well as for those taking up a profes- 
sional, commercial, or technological 
career. 

{d) From the point of view of 
rendering a good understanding 
between the two peoples less easy. 

Taking this view of the important 
place German should hold in the 
curriculum of the secondary school^ 
we welcome the recent change in 
the Regulations of your Board, the 
effect of which we understand to be 
that, so long as provision is made 
for teaching Latin to pupils who 
may require it, the Board will offer 
no objection to a school making 
French and German the two prin- 
cipal foreign languages in its 
curriculum. 

We would at the same time 
represent to you that much more 
must be done if the unfortunate 
decay of German is to be checked, 
and we therefore venture to suggest 
that your Board should consider 
the desirability of calling the atten- 
tion of educational authorities. 



governing bodies, and the prin- 
cipals of secondary schools, to the 
steady decline in the study of 
German, and should by means of 
a circular, as in the case of Latin, 
or such other method as may be 
thought fit, submit to those author- 
ities and to the public generally 
the many weighty and urgent 
reasons for regarding an acquaint- 
ance vrith German as being of the 
first importance to great numbers 
of young men and women, and a 
widespread knowledge of the lan- 
guage a national necessity. 

We would urge, moreover, that 
the Board should encourage and 
foster schools of the type of the 
German 'Realschule' and 'Ober- 
realschule,' in which two modem 
languages, but not Latin, are taught. 
The latter of these in Prussia ranks 
in standing with the Gymnasium, 
and its leaving certificate confers 
the same rights. Of schools de- 
voting special attention to modem 
as against classical languages, there 
are at present in this country very 
few. 

Lastly we would suggest that it 
should^ as a general mle, be re- 
quired that schools should make 
provision for the teaching of Ger- 
man to those pupils who wish to 
learn it, as it is now required that 
provision should be made for the 
teaching of Latin. 

In conclusion we desire to point 
out — 

(a) That the study of English is 
encouraged in (German schools of 
every type. 

(6) That England seems to be 

14—2 



198 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



the only country of importance 
where the study of German is 
neglected. In the United States, 
France, and Scandinavia especially, 
great weight is attached to the 
teaching of this language. 

We are, sir. 
Your obedient servants : 

Signed on behalf of the Modem 
Language Association — 

A. A. SOMKRVILLS, Chairman 
of Committees. 

E. L. Milnkr-Babry, Vice- 
chairman of Committees. 

H. Weston Evk. 
A. T. Pollard. 

F. Stork. 

Signed on behalf of the London 
Chamber of Commerce Education 
Committee — 



Albert E. Bollit, Chairman 
(ex-President, London Cham- 
ber of Commerce). 

Augustus Kahn. 

Signed on behalf of the Society oi 
University Teachers of German — 
Karl Breul. 
EL G. Fiedler. 

J. G. KOBERTSON. 

A. W. SCHUDDEKOPF. 

Signed on behalf of the Teachers' 
Guild— 

T. Gregory Foster, Provost, 
University College, London. 
Walter Bdppmann. 

Signed on behalf of Uie British 
Science Guild — 

Norman Logkyer, Chairman 
of Committees. 



MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY IN SCOTLAND. 

Resolutions Adopted by the Scottish Modern Languages 
Association regarding the Present PosmoN and Future 
Organization of Modern Language Study in Scotland. 



In our last issue we briefly referred to 
these important resolutioiiB, which we 
now give in full : 

* I. The IrUemudiaU and Junior Student 
OurriciUwni, 

'1. That the intermediate curriculum 
should allow local freedom for the starting 
of three languages other than English 
before its close by relieving the special 
linguistio pupils from the third year's 
science and di-awing, in whole or in part. 

' 2. That curricula should be sanctioned 
corresponding to the different types of 
secondary education given in different 
schools or different sides of schools, and 
that the time devoted in the curriculum, 



and the standard of attainment exacted 
for each subject, should vary according to 
the requirements of each type of ourricn- 
lum, and be fixed by an external authority, 
such as a National Educational Council, 
exceptions being made for special cases. 

' 3. That in every school receiving Par- 
liamentary grants the option of a non- 
classical course should be provided for all 
pupils, including junior students (an ex- 
ception being made in the case of certain 
schools whose resources are insufficient). 

< 4. That the junior student curriculum, 
to make the above possible, should admit 
of modification in the case of the class of 
linguistio pupils mentioned in pangraph 1 , 
so that what is already b«gun may be 



MODERN LANGUAGE STUDY IN SCOTLAND 



199 



carried on, and junior stadents may have 
the poBaibility of becoming Modem Lan- 
guage teachers. 

' II. Leaving Oertificaiea. 

' 1. That pupils who take two modem 
languages for the Leaving Certificate 
should not be required to take Latin as an 
additional subject 

' 2. That in the Leaving Certificate 
Examination the proficiency of candidates 
in each subject should be indicated by such 
terms as **feir,"** good," and "excellent" 

' III. The Preliminary JExaminaHon, 
* 1. That dynamics as an independent 
subject should be excluded, and that in 
foreign languages no question should be 
set in the history of literature or in 
philology. 

'2. That a classical language should 
no longer be compulsory, and that students 
from the modem sides of schools should be 
admitted to the University on equal terms 
with those from the classical side. 

' IV. The Bursary JBxaminaiion. 
*l. That, so long as bursaries are 
awarded by competition, the present 
regulations should be modified, so as to 
give absolute equality of marks to ancient 
and modem languages, and that dynamics 
as an independent subject should be 
excluded. 

*V. T?ie honours Degru, 
' 1. That this degree should be awarded 
in single subjects — Latin, Greek, English, 
Mathematics, French, German, Philosophy, 
History, Political Economy, etc. 

*2. That the limit of five years for 
graduation with Honours should be 
abolished. 

' 8. That the special condition imposed 
upon Modem Language candidates regard- 
ing the study of particular philosophical 
and scientific subjects should be abolished. 

• VL Three-Term Seerion. 
' That, if the scheme for a three-term 
•ession is adopted, special airangements 



should be made for Modem Language 
students, so that they may have the 
option of spending the summer terms 
abroad. In their case, a session of two 
terms should be accepted on evidence 
shown that a third term was spent abroad 
under suitable supervision. That, in 
order to allow of this arrangement, a two- 
term session should be accepted in all 
subjects taken by Modem Language 
students. In Modem Languages the work 
of the summer term at home should be of 
a tutorial character. 

'YII. Tutorial Instruction and Apparatus, 
* That provision should be made in the 
Universities for tutorial instraotion, and 
that the Modem Language departments 
should be equipped with all necessary 
apparatus. 

*VIII. Travelling Oranis and Scholar- 
ships, 
'That the number and value of the 
Travelling Grants and Travelling and 
Research Scholarships should be increased. 

'IX. Lectureships, 
*That the lecturesMps in Modem Lan- 
guages should be raised to Chairs. 

' X. QualifieaUon of Secondary Teachers, 
< That the special qualification to teach 
should be granted for single subjects, and 
that no restriction should be placed upon 
the number of subjects for which qualifica- 
tion is granted, provided the candidates 
give proof of the requisite knowledge and 
skill, so that sudi combinations, for 
instance, as French and Latin, German 
and English, French and English, French 
and German, Greek and English, should 
be possible. 

' XI. Training of Secondary Teachers in 
French and Oerman, 
' 1. That junior and senior students 
who intend to become teachers of Modem 
Languages should receive equal pecuniary 
advantages with other students from the 



200 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Edncation Department and the Provincial 
Committeee. 

* 2. That the Degree with Honours in 
French or German, or its equivalent from 
a foreign University, should be demanded 
for the principal teacher of either of these 
languages. 

' 3. That in all cases the professional 
training should be taken after the Degree 
course has been completed. 

'4. That all Provincial Committees 
should make adequate provision for the 
training of teachers of Modem Languages. 

*XIL Residence Abroad, 

* That school authorities should be em- 
powered to give grants to teachers in 
active work, to enable them to study 
abroad for periods of several months 
without loss of position.' 

Some of the points mentioned refer to 
conditions in Scotland, and are of local 
interest only, but other questions affect us 
no less than our Scottish colleagues. We, 
too, have long been struggling to secure 
that Modem Languages shall be on the 
same level as classics in the requirements 
of examining bodies, and that existing 
disabilities should be removed. We, too, 
complain bitterly that one of our oldest 
Universities has not yet thought Modem 
Languages worthy of professorships. 

Accompanying the resolutions is an 
explanatory memorandum, in which 
several matters of interest are more fully 
discussed. An inquiry was instituted, 
circulars being sent to thirty schools in 
which Modem Languages had been taught 
in the past with conspicuous success. 
They agreed very closely in their estimate 
of the way in which recent regulations 
had affected the teaching. We quote from 
the memorandum : 

^ French was found to be little affected 
by these regulations, and to have shared 
in the increase caused by the increased 
numbers of pupils now attending these 
schools. Within the last seven years the 
average increase has been 3 per cent in 
the number of beginners, 14 per cent, in 



the total numbers studying the language, 
and 14 per cent in the numbers taking 
the language in the highest school class. 

'The condition of German, however, is 
startlingly the reverse of this. 

* During the same time there has been a 
decrease of 39 per cent in the number of 
beginners, of 80 per cent, in the whole 
number studying the language, and of 
43 per cent, in the number taking the 
language in the highest school class. In 
three schools there are no longer any 
German pupils in the highest class. In 
one school beginners have fallen from 96 
to 24, the total numbers in German from 
160 to 57, and the number in the highest 
German class from 12 to 0. In 1900 about 
1,000 candidates took the higher-grade 
paper in German in the Leaving Certificate 
Examinations. It is believed that only 
about 500 candidates entered for th^t 
grade this year. A similar reduction has 
taken place in the number of candidates 
presented for the lower grade. 

' In addition to the reduction of numbers 
referred to above, there has been a dete- 
rioration of quality in the pupils taking 
German. It is inevitable that these con- 
ditions must react on the numbers and 
quality of those preparing to beoome 
teachers of German. In the training col- 
leges the number of students of German 
has fallen from about 700 in 1900, to 
about 70 in 1908. In 1900 German was 
taken by hundreds of pupils in the central 
classes of pupil-teachers. To-day all the 
German classes have been dropped. Since 
the institution of the Group Certificate, 
the numbers of those taking individual 
subjects are no longer published, and the 
public are kept in ignorance of the changes 
that are taking place. Next year will 
probably see another great reduction. It 
will certainly take many years to raise the 
subject again to its former place, if it is 
possible to do so at all.' 

On another page is a letter to the 
President of the Board of Education deal- 
ing with the neglect of German. We do 
not apologize for dwelling on this subject 
twice in the same issue, as it is a very 



AN EXPERIMENT IN METHOD 



201 



grave matter. As long as Latin and Greek 
reoeive preferential treatment, and as long 
as the corricolum of the middle forms in 
our secondary sohools does not allow more 



time for language work in the case of boys 
and girls whose bent is literary rather 
than mathematical or scientific, the study 
of German is bound to go on declining. 



AN EXPERIMENT IN METHOD, 



With a view to finding out what 
was the relative value for memory 
of the method of learning foreign 
words in connexion (1) with objects, 
e,g.i plume B the thing pen, and (2) 
with the native equivalents, e.g.^ 
plume = the word 'pen,' I sent a 
circular letter to a number of 
teachers, asking them if they would 
kindly undertake the following 
experiment : 

(a) Teach orally in cormedion with 
the objects they represent (e.g., parts of 
body, clothing^ fvamUwre\ or pictures 
of the objects {JhwerSy trees, animals^ 
geographical terms m cormexion with 
wallmapSy etc), any ten French or 
Oerman words not previously known to 
the class, 

{b) Teach orally to the same pupils^ 
in connexion, not unth the objects, but 
with the corresponding English words, 
any ten French or Oerman names of 
objects (e.g., parts of body, clothing, 
furniture) not previously known. 

The toords in both sets should be 
taught as single words, not in sentence 
form, and both equally thoroughly, so 
that in (a) the word can be given when 
the object is indicated, or the object in- 
dicated when the word is given ; and so 
thai in (b) the English can he supplied 
when the foreign word is spoken, and 
vice versa. 



The spelling of the words should also 
be taught. 

Have both sets written from memory 
in answer to some such question as, 
* fFrite the names of the ten flowers and 
trees you learnt on Friday ' — (1) about 
a day after learning, (2) a week later, 
and, if time, (3) a fortnight later. 
Allow not more than three minutes for 
the writing of each set. The English 
meaning of each word written should 
be added. It is these written results 
that I require. 

Please state the number of hours 
intervening between the lesson and the 
first tests; also the number of days 
between the tests. 

The age and sex of the pupil should 
be on each return. Please stale to 
whal method {translation or direcf) the 
pupils have been accustomed. 

Returns were sent in for 9 classes, 
numbering in all 151 pupils, of 
which 67 were girls and 84 boys. 

The following tables show the 
results for the boys and girls re- 
spectively. Column 3 indicates the 
method to which the class had 
been accustomed ; Columns 4 and 7 
the time intervening between the 
lesson and the first test, the latter 
and the second test, respectively ; 
Columns 5 and 8 the average num- 
ber of words remembered as a result 



203 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



of the object-lesson ; and Columns 6 
and 9 the results of the translation 
lesson. 



premature to regard them as con- 
clusive. They supply only a con- 
tribution to the much larger total 



Girls. 



1 


s 


8 


4 


6 


6 


7 


8 


9 


Pupils in 
CIam. 


Ar.Ago. 


Method. 


Time 
(DaytX 


Ol^act 


Tnxk», 


Time 


Ol^ect 


Trans. 


16 
14 

16 
11 
12 


12 
16 

18 
14 
16 


Direct 
Semi- 
direct 
Direct 
Direct 
t 


1 
1 

1 

1 
1 


2-6 
4-6 

6-0 
6-6 

7-8 


8-8 

4-8 

6-2 
8-2 
6-8 


6 
8 

7 
7 
7 


8-4 
6-6 

47 
4-0 
6-7 


2-5 
6-6 

6-7 
17 
4-4 


Average 


60 


4-9 


— 


4-9 


4-6 



Boys. 



1 


s 


8 


4 


6 


6 


7 


8 


9 


Pupils in 
disss. 


At. Age. 


Method. 


Time 


Object 


Trsns. 


Time 
(Dsys>. 


Object 


TtmoM. 


20 
10 
36 

18 


12^ 
18* 
12i 
18 


Direct 
Direct 

? 
Direct 


2 

1 
1 
2 


6-6 
6-8 
7-8 
86 


4*6 
6-2 
61 
8-8 


6 
7 
7 
7 


60 
7-1 
7-4 
4-4 


3*4 

60 
61 
4*3 


Average 


6-8 


6-0 


— 


6-0 


47 



Only those words in the list of 
each pupil were counted as remem- 
bered which had the right meaning 
attached, and were spelt well enough 
to show that the right sound had 
been grasped. The fact that the 
second test shows in some cases an 
increase on the first is due to the 
right meanings having been found 
out in the interval elapsing between 
the two tests, and not to the recol- 
lection of additional words. 

The results, as might have been 
anticipated, favour the object 
method, but it would be quite 



that must be accumulated before a 
strictly scientific generalization is 
possible. 

The chief value of the experi- 
ment is that it raises in a concrete 
form the difficulties that attend in- 
vestigation of this kind. These do 
not arise from variations in the 
conditions of the experiment in the 
case of difierent classes. They are 
of no consequence. What we want 
to know is, the relative merit of the 
two methods with one and the same 
class. It is important, therefore, 
that the two lists of words, the one 



AN EXPERIMENT IN METHOD 



203 



by object-lesson, the other by trans- 
lation, should be — 

(1) Equally well taught ; 

(2) Equally difficult. 

The first depends upon the 
teacher, and the only way to meet 
the difficulty is, in the first place, 
to exclude as many as possible of 
the variable conditions— to reduce 
the experiment, that is, to its 
barest essentials. It was for this 
reason that I excluded the teaching 
of the words in sentence form. It 
would be, however, interesting to 
repeat it, adding drill in sentence 
form to the mere repetition of the 
individual words. In the second 
place, variation in the thoroughness 
of the teaching of the two lists can 
be corrected by accumulating a mass 
of evidence sufficient to insure 
moral certainty one way or the 
other. In no case will anything but 
approximate accuracy be possible, 
but for practical purposes this is all 
that is required. 

The second condition, that of 
equality in the difficulty of the two 
lists of words, can be controlled, as 
far as the initiator of the experi- 
ment is concerned, only by selecting 
his own words; and, in order to 
avoid the possibility of using words 
already known to any given class, 
he would have to choose them 
from some language unknown 
to the class. Whether this were 
Chinese or Double Dutch would be 
unimportant. The alternative is to 
leave the choice to the teacher. 
This was done in the present case, 



and, as the teachers happened to be 
persons of considerable experience, 
a fair balance was maintained. But 
in any case, if the mass of evidence 
accumulated is ample, slight varia- 
tions in the difficulty of the vocabu- 
laries taught may be ignored. 

The value of such experiments 
can hardly be over-rated. They 
provide, in fact, the only way of 
settling conclusively a number of 
the difficulties which divide teachers, 
and which at present are settled 
by each as a result of his personal 
experience. As these personal 
results are frequently contradictory, 
the scientific investigator is driven 
to regard them all with equal 
scepticism, the more so as he has 
seldom any means of knowing under 
what conditions the experience of 
the individual has been gained. 

The great need in Modem Lan- 
guage instruction, as in all other 
forms of instruction, is a body of 
trained investigators, a new kind of 
Special Inquiries Department, free 
to give its whole time to the work, 
and, above all, put to find out only 
the things that really matter — that 
is, that the teachers need to know. 
Such a body would save us an 
enormous amount of talking. 

In conclusion, as far as the present 
experiment is concerned, I have to 
thank Miss F. M. S. Batchelor, Miss 
C. W. Matthews (West Riding 
CO.), Mr. H. J. Chaytor, and Mr. 
J. H. Garside, who, let me hasten 
to add, are in no way responsible 
for the form of the experiment. 

F. R EiRKMAN. 



204 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



SOME FRENCH PICTURES, LANTERN-SLIDES, AND 

SONGS. 



One dismal, rainy day, when visit- 
ing the Franco-British Exhibition, I 
came upon what I had long sought 
for, the French counterpart of the 
German movement^ Die Kunst im 
Leben des Kindes — La Soci^t^ 
Nationale de TArt k r£cole. The 
society is an extremely youthful 
one, as I learned later on in Paris 
from its indefatigable secretary, 
Monsieur L^on Riotor. It was 
founded on February 14, 1907, by 
Monsieur Ch.-M. Couyba, d^put^, 
assisted by Monsieur Riotor, but 
it already numbers some hundreds 
of members. Its aims are 'to 
make the child love nature and 
art, to render school more attrac- 
tive, and to aid in the formation 
of taste and the development of 
the moral and social education of 
the young.' The aims of the 
society are fully explained in the 
pamphlet L*Art h r£cole, published 
by Larousse at 1 fr. 20 c. The 
first congress on the subject was 
held at Lille in June of this year, 
and the society publishes at 
irregular intervals a paper, L*Ari 
tb VEcok, for the furtherance of its 
alms. Two of these practical aims 
appeal at once to the teacher of 
French. We desire to have upon 
the walls of our class-rooms pictures 
representing characteristic features 
of French life and scenery, and we 
wish to cultivate French song. 
Something in the direction of 



providing really artistic pictures 
has already been done in Belgium, 
where the city of Brussels is having 
a series of twenty-one pictures 
published, illustrating various pic- 
turesque sites. Two of these 
have already appeared, 'Village 
Flamand ' and ' Valine de la 
Meuse.' They are beautifully 
printed upon stout paper, and will 
bear comparison with the best 
German work of Teubner or Voigt- 
lander. The pictures are published 
by O. De Rycker and Mendel, 
Forest - Bruxelles, and cost only 
4 francs each post free. 

The pictures of Mademoiselle 
Dufau, which have been approved 
of by the Soci^t^ Nationale de T Art 
k r£cole, are not so suitable for 
the purposes of the Modem Lan- 
guage teacher, simply because two 
of them at any rate are rather 
obviously intended to teach moral 
lessons — ^not that the Modem Lan- 
guage teacher is opposed to the 
teaching of la morale, but his ideal 
aim is different. 

One large field of pictorial art 
has been hardly touched in this 
country for the decoration of our 
Modern Language class-rooms — 
namely, the railway poster. Follow- 
ing up a hint in the bulletin of the 
society, I wrote to the Chemins de 
Fer de Paris k Lyon et 4 la 
Mediterran^e, 6« Division, Bureau : 
Publicity, Boulevard Diderot 20, 



SOME FRENCH PICTURES, LANTERN-SLffiES, AND SONGS 205 



Paris 12% and to the Chemin de 
Fer d'Orl^ans, Bureau du Trafic 
Voyageurs, 4« Section, 1, Place 
Valhubert, Paris 13«, and begged 
for some of their posters. The 
P.L.M. sell large affiches, such as 
Auvergne, Grottes et Cascade de 
Baume, Mont -Blanc, Savoie- Dau- 
phin^ (carte -affiche), Alpes, Cdte 
d'Azur (carte-affiche), etc., at the 
price of 1 franc each, plus 1 franc 
for packing and carriage. The 
Chemin de Fer d'Orl^ns was* par- 
ticularly generous, and forwarded 
gratis twelve splendid coloured 
posters illustrating the Chiteaux 
de la Loire, Touraine, Corr^ze, 
etc., besides four large albums and 
numerous smaller illustrated leaf- 
lets. 

For lantern - slides France pos- 
sesses the excellent Service des 
Projections Lumineuses, k la Biblio- 
th^que. Office et Mus^e de TEn- 
seignement Public, 41, Rue Gay- 
Lussac, Paris 5% a central office, 
from which slides are lent for a 
week at a time to teachers and 
inspectors in all parts of the 
country. We in Great Britain un- 
fortunately possess no similar in- 
stitution, although proposals have 
been made to found such a one ; 
but those who are fortunate enough 
to be able to buy slides will find 
valuable guidance in the catalogue 
of the Musee P^dagogique, which 
contains over fifty sets of slides 
dealing with French history, forty 
dealing with French art, and forty 
giving views of various towns and 
regions in France. Several firms 
supply slides at 1 franc each, similar 



to those in use at the Mus^e — for 
example : 

L^vy, 44, Rue Letellier. 
Radiguet et Massiot, 13 et 15, 

Boulevard des Filles-du- 

Calvaire. 
J. E. Bulloz, 21, Rue Bonaparte. 

Many of the sets of slides of the 
Mus^e P^dagogique have a short 
accompanying ''notice," and the 
Soci^t^ Nationale des Conferences 
Populaires, 4, Rue Rameau, although 
not officially connected with the 
Mus^ P^dagogique, have printed 
lectures to accompany many of the 
sets of lantern-slides. 

The question of French songs 
suitable for singing in our schools 
has always been a difficult one — not 
so much for the beginners' stage, 
as for the intermediate and higher 
stages. For the babies, nothing 
coidd be better than the Treniesix 
Danses ChanUes ei MirrUes, by Mes- 
dames Carr et Siquot, published 
by Femand Nathan, Rue de Cond^ 
18, at 2 fr. 50 a ; while for the more 
advanced stage Monsieur Rioter's 
Taimt man Pays^ set to music by 
Monsieur Auguste Chapuis, and 
published by Durand, 4, Place de 
la Madeleine, vrill be found most 
suitable. Theodore Botrel's songs 
are, of course, well known, but it 
may not be so well known that 
sheets containing four songs and 
the melody are being sold in the 
kiosques on the boulevards for 10 
centimes. These marvellously cheap 
editions are published at 10, Rue 
de Tracy. 



206 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



In conclusion I would excuse 
myself for the necessarily scrappy 
nature of these notes of an autumn 
tour, and trust that something in 



Uiem may be found of use by 
workers in the same pleasant fields 
of France. 

Bessie H. A. Bobson. 



FRENCH WOMEN NOVELISTS OF THE EARLY NINE- 
TEENTH CENTURY. 

[Much df th4 irrformation in the following paper is taken from if. A, U Breton's 
*Le Roman fran^is au XIX* SiMe.'] 



Tbs French novel in the hands of women 
writers is rather a medium for the expres- 
sion of ideas than a literary form. With, 
perhaps, one exception — that of Mme de 
Sooza — all the women novelists of the early 
nineteenth century wrote, not because 
they felt themselves inspired, but because 
they felt it was their duty to do so. They 
wished to add their quota to the attempts 
at the solution of the questions of the day, 
and the question which interested them 
most was that of the position of women in 
society. Therefore the works of these 
writers can hardly be judged by the stan- 
dards of ordinary literary criticism ; any 
interest which they may possess consists in 
the light which they throw on the intel- 
lectual and social life of the times. They 
are the channels through which the most 
gifted women gave expression to their 
views on life. 

In France the history of nineteenth- 
century thought has its starting-point 
in the Revolution, or rather in the ideas 
which made the Revolution possible. After 
the year 1830 these ideas, though not 
dead, had lost the vitality of youth. Balzac 
had begun to write and the age of realism 
had set in. 

Therefore it is possible to speak of the 
writers of the period from 1789 to 1880 
together, as, although differing widely in 
their point of view, they all owed much to 
the ideas of romanticism. There are two 
groups of women writers during this period, 
one consisting of those who carried on the 
intellectual traditions of the eighteenth 
century, and the other of those who owed 



less to the eighteenth century, and more to 
the ideas of romanticism and the Eeyola- 
tion. 

To the first group belong Mme de 
Charri^re and Mme de Souza; to the 
second, Mme de Oottin, Mme de Erii- 
dener, and Mme de StaeL 

Although Mme de Charri^'s last works 
belong to the days of the Oonsnlat, she 
is too closely connected with two im- 
portant personalities of the nineteenth 
century to be passed over. To her best 
novel, Caliste, Mme de Stael owed the 
idea of Corinne, and it was her influence 
which moulded the character of Benjamin 
Constant She herself has been rightly 
called 'la fille de Diderot.' Le Breton 
says of her : ' Elle compte parmi ces sages 
du 18* si^le k qui rien n'a manqu6 qne le 
sentiment religieux, que le rayon d'idM.' 

Mme de Oharri^'s best known novel, 
Caliste, owes the plan of its construction 
to Diderot. Two distinct but similar 
plots are treated side by side, and each 
finds its denouement in the other. C^ile 
ia the heroine of the first, Oaliste of the 
second. 

The story of Cecils is told by her mother 
in a series of letters to a friend. In the 
same way that Yaldrie resembles Mme de 
Krudener, and as Gorinne resembles Mme 
de Stael, so Guile's mother resembles 
Mme de Gharri^. 

G^ile is a girl of seventeen, who Uvea 
with her mother in Lausanne. After having 
reftised several eligible suitors, O^ile meets 
a young EngUsh nobleman, and they fall 
in love. G^oile's mother, whose position. 



FRENCH WOMEN NOVELISTS 



207 



being socially and financially inferior to 
that of the Englishman, does not allow 
her to hope for a marriage, advises C^ile 
to be more reserved. Cecile obeys — with a 
heavy heart — bnt the Englishman is not 
to be sent away. In the meantime, a 
bailiff's son proposes formally to G^ile, 
and she refases him. On hearing of her 
decision, her mother questions her as to 
the state of her affections : ' "Troaves-tn ton 
anglais plus aimable ?— Elle me dit que 
non. — Te serait-il indifferent d'entrer dans 
une famille oil Ton ne te verrait plus aveo 
plaisir? — Non, cela me paraitrait plus 
flftcheu2. — S'il est des noeuds secrets, s'il 
est des sympathies, en est-il ioi, ma oh&re 
enfant !— Non, maman, je ne I'occupe tout 
au plus que quand il me voit. ..." Elle 
souriait tristement, et deux larmes bril- 
laient dans ses yeux.' 

There is much fine psychology and much 
delicate realism in the story of C^ile. The 
society of Lausanne, consisting entirely of 
middle-class families, who either let their 
houses or take boarders during the summer, 
is delightfully true to life. 

The story of CaUste may be regarded as 
the last chapter in the story of Cecils. The 
link between the two is William, the 
travelling companion of the young Eng- 
lishman, who enlists the sympathy of 
Chile's mother on account of his perpetual 
melancholy. She questions him as to its 
cause, and he replies by sending her the 
written history of his life, precisely as Lord 
Nelvil does in Corinne, The most impor- 
tant person in this story is Galiste, the first 
erring woman in literature who commands 
not only our pity, but our respect. After 
the death of the man who has ruined her 
reputation, Galiste lives by herself in Bath, 
where William meets her. They fall in 
love, and William, persuading himself that 
he will obtain his father's consent to their 
marriage, refuses to leave her. The consent 
is, of course, not forthcoming. William 
leaves Galiste and marries the woman of 
his father's choice, and Galiste marries a 
country squire. They meet onoe again at 
the theatre. At the cloee of the play they 
walk together in St James's Park, and the 



scene there comes very near to tragedy. 
After this William, following his father's 
advice, accompanies his young kinsman 
to Lausanne, where ho hears of GaUste's 
death. 

There is no other conclusion to Mme 
de Gharri^'s novel. The reader guesses 
that Guile's fate will be that of Galiste. 
A characteristic which Mme. de Gharri^re 
possesses in oonmion with all her con- 
temporaries is that of scattering general 
reflections throughout her works. Here is 
one from CalisU : * On parle tant des 
illusions de I'amour-propre. Gependant, 
il est bien rare, quand on est v^ritablement 
aim^, qu'on croie T^tre autant qu'on Test. 
— Si on le savait, oombien on s'observerait 
par piti6, par g^n^rosit^ par int^t, pour 
ne pas perdre le bien inestimable d'etre 
tendrement aim^.' It is because neither 
William nor his young companion can 
appreciate this blessing that they ruin the 
lives of those who love them. 

The importance of CalitU consists in the 
fact that it is a protest against the 
eighteenth-century idea that it was no 
disgrace for a man to receive all a woman's 
love, and to give a little love and no respect 
in return. This protest was all the more 
courageous because it was not made against 
the vices of villains, but against the so- 
called weaknesses of gentlemen. 

With Mme de Souza, the scene changes 
ftom Lausanne to Paris, and the actors no 
longer belong to the middle classes, but to 
the aristocracy. Mme de Souza— then the 
Gomtesse de Flahaut — ^was for seven years 
at the Gourt of Marie- Antoinette. ' Qui 
n'a pas v^ k Paris de 1786 k 1787 n'a 
pas oonnu la douceur de vivre,' said 
Talleyrand. Mme de Souza both knew it, 
and could describe it 

She was the author of eight novels, of 
which the best are Ad^le de S/nange, JSuff^ne 
ds Hoihilin, and Charles ei Marie, The 
life which Mme de Souza knew is reflected 
in them all, as well as her own charm- 
ing but perhaps slightly artifldal person- 
aUty. 

In Ad^le de S/nangewe havea pictoresque 
deaoription of the convent in which Mme 



208 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



de Souza wis brought np. There ia no 
atmosphere of austerity in the picture. 
The convent is a pleasant place, full of the 
brightness and gaiety of childhood ; the 
sterner things of life are to be found in the 
adjoining infirmary, which the best pupils 
are allowed to visit on Monday evenings. 

In EuffMe de Bathslin Mme de Souza 
seems to be taking a page from the life- 
history of one of her partners at a Oourt 
ball. Eugene forms an early attachment 
with Agathe, a peasant-girl, but is made 
to understand by his father that he must 
marry someone else. Agathe also consoles 
herself, and on the day on which Eugtoe 
marries Athenais de Rieuz, Agathe, with 
her husband and two children, oomes to 
eurtsey to ' Monsieur Not' Mattre ' as he 
comes out of church. 

Charles ei Marie \b a sketch of English 
life, as seen by Mme de Souza during her 
forced stay in this country at the time of 
the Revolution. What she saw was especi- 
ally the amusing side. Hbt Charles et Marie 
resembles Evelina in its simplicity, delicate 
humour, and perfect refinement What is 
lacking, as in all Mme de Souza's work, is 
characterization. She gives us charming 
outline sketches, but not portraits. 

Yet even Mme de Souza is no exception 
to the more serious tendencies of her time. 
Like all her contemporaries, Mme de 
Souza was a moralist, ' im petit moralists 
de salon,* as Le Breton says. Her re- 
flections on things in general are often 
original and striking : * Maman, dlt Mme 
de Bieuz, mon intention ^tait pure. — Je 
n'en doute pas, r^poud Mme d'Estonville ; 
mais, mon enfant, ce sont les intentions 
pures qu'il faut examiner deux fois: les 
mauvaises parlent d'elles m^mes.' 

Mme de Souza also resembles her con- 
temporaries in the subjectivity of her 
work. The child-wife Ad^le married to 
the elderly M. de Senange is reaUy the 
child-wife Ad^lc Filleul married to the 
elderly Conte de Flahaut Nevertheless, 
the author does not thrust her own identity 
upon us, as later writers are inclined to do. 
Mme de Erudener and Mme de Stael both 
belong to a later group of thinkers. They 



owe less to the eighteenth century and 
more to romantidsm. They are thinkers 
rather than artists, and teachers rather 
than either. 

Mme de Kriidener's life was one of the 
most eventful in ai^ eventful age. Bom at 
Riga in 1766, she came to Paris in 1802. 
Being remarkably beautiful and possessing 
an extraordinary charm, both of which she 
utilized to the ftill, her youth was stormy 
rather than happy. About the year 1808 
she became a mystic, and, untU her death 
in 1824, she exercised a powerful influence 
over all who came near her, particularly 
over the Emperor Alexander. 

When writing VaUrie, however, in 1802, 
Mme de Krildener was very little of a 
mystic and very much of a woman of the 
world. The success of her book was due 
as much to her strategy as to her literary 
ability. 

Nevertheless, Mme de Kriideners 
literary ability is undoubted. Without 
originality of plot or complexity of interest, 
VdUrie is, until nearly the end, a proee 
idyll. The three chief characters are : 
Valerie, who is not yet eighteen ; her hus- 
band, the Count, who is thirty-eight ; and 
his adopted son Gustave, who is about 
twenty. The Count is the Swedish Am- 
bassador at Venice, and most of the 
incidents of the story occur on the journey 
from Vienna to Venice. 

Gustave soon discovers that he is hope- 
lessly in love with Valerie, but is deter- 
mined to conceal the fact firom her. It is 
the story of his love which forms the plot. 
In the end, Gustave goes away to die of 
consimiption in a picturesque spot among 
the Apennines. 

Two episodes in this story are of interest 
on account of their subsequent reappear- 
ance in the history of the novel. The first 
occurs at Padua. Gustave goes with 
Valerie to the opera, and is so deeply 
affected by her presence that he cannot 
sleep. The second takes place at Venice. 
Gustave, from the garden, watches Valerie 
perform the shawl-dance at a ball. The 
first of these situations oocors both in 
CaZitU and in Corinne ; the second ooeors 



FRENCH WOMEN NOVELISTS 



209 



in ^Lgine de Rot?idtn, in Delphine, and in 
Carinne, 

One of the most channing pusages in 
VaUrie is Gastave's description of a de- 
serted graveyard near one of the Italian 
lakes : ' Ce tableau k la fois religieux et 
sanvage nous firappa singnli^rement. Va- 
lerie, fatigu^ on entrain^ par son imagina- 
tion, nous proposa de nous reposer. Jamais 
je ne la vis si charmante ; Tair dn matin 
avait anim^ son teint ; son vStement pur 
et l^ger Ini donnait quelque chose d'aerien, 
et Ton edt dit voir an second printemps 
plus bean, plus jeune encore que le premier, 
descendre du ciel snr oet asile du tr^pas : 
elle s'^tait assise sur un des tombeauz ; il 
8onfi9ait on vent assez frais, et, dans un 
instant, elle fut converte d'une pluie de 
fleurs des pruniers voisins, qui, de leur 
duvet et de leurs donees couleurs, sem- 
blaient la caresser. Elle souriait en les 
assemblant autour d*elle ; et moi, la voyant 
si belle, si pure, je sentis que je voulus 
mourir oommes ses fleurs, pourvu qu'un 
instant son souffle me touch&t.' One 
is not surprised to hear that a man who 
felt thus used, as a boy, to go for solitary 
walks reading Ossian. 

The underlying thought in this story of 
Valerie and Gustave seems to be that love 
is involuntary, and may remain for ever 
unrequited. There is also the problem of 
what a man in Gustavo's position ought to 
do; but its solution is so simple that it 
can hardly be said to constitute the main 
interest. The story of Valerie is the story 
of Mme de Krudener slightly idealized. 
Mme de Eriidener's lover solved the prob- 
lem by resigning his secretaryship to 
M. de Krudener. Such common sense was, 
however, impossible in Gustave, who shows 
himself to be, in thought, word and deed, 
'une&me sensible.* 

With Mme de Stael we leave the realm 
of half- forgotten names. Although greater 
as a woman than as an author, and greater 
as the author of De VAllemagne than of 
Delphine and Corinne, Mme de Stael's 
claim to remembrance as a novelist still 
holds good. Her contemporaries preferred 
her novels before all her other works, pos- 



sibly on account of the ' portraits * which 
they found in them. To us the interest 
of Delphine and Corinne lies in what they 
show us of the individuality of Mme de 
Stael — of her thoughts, of her opinions, 
and of her life. 

In Delphvp} especially we see the author, 
as it were, face to face. Delphine is Mme 
de Stael's interpretation of herself as a 
woman — not of genius, but of feeling. 
She is rich and beautiful, young and in- 
dependent ; she is devoted to an older 
woman, Mme de Vernon, and sacrifices a 
large part of her income in order to pro- 
vide a dowry for Mme de Vernon's 
daughter, Matbilde. Mathilde is affianced 
to a young Spanish nobleman, L^nce de 
Mondoville, whom she has never seen. 
Delphine has never seen him either, nor 
he her; but they feel themselves mys- 
teriously attracted towards each other, 
and fall in love at first sight. Delphine 
tries to explain matters to Mme de Vernon ; 
but instead of allowing het to do so, and 
guessing what has happened, Mme de 
Vernon sees Ldonoe, and persuades him to 
renew his engagement with Mathilde. 
This she does by interpreting some ex- 
tremely generous behaviour on the part of 
Delphine in the worst possible light. 

Ij<k>nce marries Mathilde, and im- 
mediately finds out how cruelly Delphine 
has been slandered. He tries to see her, 
but she refuses him admittance, and leaves 
Paris. He follows her, and, after a passion-, 
ate scene of reconciliation, they arrange to 
meet for five hours every evening. Mathilde, 
however, soon discovers what is happening. 
She accuses Delphine of stealing her hus- 
band's heart from her, and requests her to 
see him no more. Delphine refuses at the 
time, but tries to fulfil her wish afterwards 
by going to a convent at Zurich. There 
she takes the veil, being finally persuaded 
to do so by the abbess, who happens to be 
the aunt of L^nce. In the meantime 
Mathilde dies, and L^nce hurries to Zurich, 
only to find that Delphine can never be 
his. He contemplates suicide, and Del- 
phine, in order to save his Ufe, offers to 
break her vows and come to him. M. de 



210 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Lebensei, a friend of both L6once and 
Mathilde. strongly advia«t him to accept 
thii offer, particularly as the Revolationary 
GoTemment has just passed an Act an- 
nulling all monastic tows. ' Yous roulez 
mourir plut6t que de renonoer k Delphine, 
et I'id^ que je yous prtente ne s*est point 
offerte k votre esprit f £st-ce un ^pouz qui 
YOUS enl^ve votre amie f quel est le devoir 
veritable qui la s^pare|de vous f un serment 
fait k Dieu. Ah ! nous connaissons bien 
pen nos rapports avec I'Stre snpr^e ; 
mais sans doute il sait trop bien quelle est 
notre nature pour accepter jamais des 
engagements irr^vocables.' These argu- 
ments seem at first successful, and Del- 
phine, having obtained permission from 
the abbess to go to Baden, meets L^noe 
there. It soon becomes clear, however, 
that L^nce regrets his decision, and cares 
more for public opinion than for Delphine. 
Having heard someone in the crowd say, 
on seeing them together, 'Comment 
souffre-t-on un tel scandals ici?* L^once 
throws himself on a sofa in Delphine's 
room and exclaims : ' Non, la vie ne pent 
se supporter sans Thonneur ; et I'honneur 
ce sent les jugements des hommes qui le 
dispensent. II faut les fuir dans le 
tombeau.' Although bitterly reproaching 
himself for his treatment of Delphine, 
L^nce cannot decide to brave public 
opinion for her sake. He leaves her, and 
joins the army in Germany, to fight against 
the Revolutionaries. He is taken prisoner 
by the Democrats and sentenced to death. 
Delphine, escorted by a friend, M. de 
Serbellane, visits L^nce in his cell, and 
is allowed to accompany him to the place 
of execution. Before starting she takes 
poison, and falls dead a moment before the 
order to shoot L^nce is given. L^nce 
himself is shot, and they are buried 
together. 

What is the idea underlying the story oi 
Delphine T Mme de Stael would have us 
believe that it is contained in the epigraph : 
*Un homme doit savoir braver I'opinion, 
une femme doit s'y soumettre.* It is true 
that L^nce and Delphine each act in oppo- 
sition to this maxim, and that their lives 



are ruined in consequence. But the real 
question discussed in the book is this: 
May a woman, feeling herself justified by 
her conscience, be a law unto herself or 
not? Delphine is Mme de 8tael*s fiist 
contribution to the discussion on the place 
of woman in society, and in it» as in 
Cktrinne, there is no direct answer to tfas 
question. But Sainte-Beuve no doubt 
defines the position of Mme de Stael when 
he says : * L'id^ qui pent-^tre ressort le 
plus de ce livre est le d^sir du bonheor 
dans le manage, un sentiment profond ds 
I'impossibilit^ d'etre heureuz ailleurs.' As 
the disciple of Rousseau, Mme de Stael 
hates the conventions of society ; as ths 
daughter of Necker, she cannot break fres 
from them. In Corinne the heroine is ones 
more Mme de StaiO, but seen in a new 
light As Delphine was the woman of 
feeling, so Oorinne is the woman of genius 
—the eeprit penaeur, as she herself would 
have said. Mme de Stael shows how diffi- 
cult is the position of both in a society in 
which both intense feeling and genius ars 
considered the prerogative of men. 

Like Delphine, Corinne loves with all 
her heart a man who only loves her up to 
a certain point. Oswald. Lord Kelvil, 
while travelling in Italy, is captivated by 
the personal charm and extraordinaiy in- 
telligence of Corinne. She allows hkn to 
see her constantly, and shows him the 
ruins and churches of Rome. They timvel 
to Naples together, and then eadi gives 
the other a written account of his or her 
life. In that of Corinne, Oswald learns 
that she is the half-sister of the English 
girl Lucile Edgermont, whom his father 
wishes him to marry. Corinne had lived 
in the Edgermont family in Northumber- 
land for five years, and had disliked it 
intensely. Also, a marriage had in those 
days been suggested between her and 
Oswald, but his father would not agree to 
it after having seen how gifted Oorinne 
was. Oswald, however, does not allow 
these considerations to alter his love for 
Corinne, and promises either to obtain his 
father's consent to their marriage, or not 
to marry at alL On hit return to SngliDd, 



FRENCH WOMEN NOVELISTS 



211 



however, Oswald finds that his fitther is 
dead, and this makes his former wishes 
seem more binding. Oswald also sees a 
good deal of Lucile, who is both as beauti- 
fol and as charming as her half-sister, 
Corinne. though in a more English and lees 
original way. In the meai^time Corinne, 
detecting a oertain coolness in Oswald's 
letters, and wishing to know what his 
feelings towards her are. follows him to 
London. There, herself nnobserved, she 
sees him constantly with Lucile and her 
mother, and guesses the reason of his cold- 
ness towards her. She follows them to 
Northumberland, and there she resolres to 
sacrifice herself in order to ensure the 
happiness of Oswald and Lucile. She sends 
Oswald back his ring, and returns to Italy, 
this time to Florence. Oswald marries 
Lucile, but is obliged to leave her almost 
at once to join his regiment. While he is 
away Lucile hears of his treatment of 
Ck>rinne, and is torn between jealousy and 
fear for herself. On Oswald's return, it is 
found necessary for him to go to Italy on 
account of his lungs. He takes his wife 
with him, and they go to Florence. There 
he tries to see Corinne, in order to explain 
to her that, knowing nothing of her visit 
to England, and receiving no letters from 
her during that time, he concluded that 
she no longer loved him. She refuses to 
see him, but accepts a written explanation. 
He then finds out that she is slowly dying, 
and begs, even through the mediation of 
Lucile, to be allowed to see her. She 
refuses, not because she has not forgiven 



him, but because, as she says: 'Je sens 
que la vue d'Oswald remplirait mon Ame 
de sentiments qui ne s'accordent point avee 
lesangoisses de lamort' After Corinne's 
death Oswald returns with Lucile to 
England, where he becomes a perfect hus- 
band. But the story closes with a note of 
interrogation : ' Lord Nelvil se pardonna-t- 
il sa conduits pass^? le monde, qui 
I'approuva, le consola-t-U f se oontenta-t-il 
d'un sort commun apr^ ce qu'il avait 
perdu ? Je I'ignore ; je ne venz k cet ^gaid 
ni le bl&mer ni I'absoudre.* 

Here, again, Mme de Stael diBCusses the 
position of women in society, but it is the 
case of the particularly gifted woman which 
she considers. Is the world right in deny- 
ing that such a woman can be a good wife 
and mother? Must she choose between 
marriage and the exercise and develop- 
ment of her talents? Once more, the 
ideal is *le bonheur dans le mariage'; 
fame is, after all, only 'le deuil bla- 
tant du bonheur.' Mme de Stael herself 
had known fame when writing Corinne, 
and she wrote from the fulness of her 
heart. 

In conclusion. I should like to em- 
phasize once more that it is as thinkers 
rather than as novelists that the French 
women novelists of the early nineteenth 
century are interesting. Therein lies both 
their weakness and their strength, and it 
is therein that they differ most markedly 
from the English women writers of the 
same period. 

Amy Satle. 



CENTRAL WELSH BOARD. EXAMINATIONS, 1908. 



W« had occasion last year to report very 
unfavourably on the papers set by the 
above body, and this year again we are 
compelled to draw attention to their 
defects. We trust it will not be necessary 
to do so a third time. 

The French Honour Unseen Translation 
was far too difficult— ridiculously so for 
candidatea of seventeen. This is a 
specimen: 



' Les petites bales de carton ^lataient, 
les fils d'arohal se tordaient, les galons se 
fondaient. . . .' 

In the Literature paper we have ques- 
tions like the following : 

* Write notes on the chief oontribntors 
to the Bncyelopidie, 

'How is La LMr§ iwr Us SpedaeUi 
related to Rousseau's general attitude to- 
wards dviliation and progress ?' 

ir» 



212 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



The fint letds to enm, and the aeoond 
is the kind of question one would expect 
to find set, not to aohool boys and girls 
with yery limited time at their die- 
poeal, but to oandidates for a Uniyersity 
degree. 

Are the Central Welah Board quite 
wise in introducing a paper of this kind 
at all f If it means that the candidates 
' get up ' a text-book on French literature 
for the examination, then it is as likelj 
as not to do mischief. What does the 
Board want? Does it want the pupils 
in its schools to acquire a love for French 
literature, or to acquire a knowledge about 
French literature? Has it ever asked 
itself ? And is it certain that the formid- 
able demands made bj this examination 
paper will give them the time to do more 
than * get up ' the subject solely with an 
eye to the examination ? And if this is 
so, does it believe that this process is 
compatible with the other — that of ac- 
quiring an interest in the literature ? 

The subjects for Free Oomposition i 



(a) Les rapports de la litt^ratnre et de 
la vie mondaine au XYIII* si^e. 

(b) Les relations litteraires de la France 
et de I'Angleterre au XVIII* si^le. 

(c) Le th^tre comme expression de 
revolution sociale et politique au XYIII* 
sitele. 

{d) L'amour de la nature au XYIII* 
si&cle. 



(e) 'Les grandee pensta Tiennent du 
ooBur.' 

(/) Les payaages gallois. 

These speiJc eloquently for themselves. 
Even supposing the first four to be got 
up out of Literature text-books, they are 
too difficult 

In the Grammar paper we get the follow- 
ing astounding question : 

' Write as many examples as you deem 
necessary to show the principal rules for 
the use of the subjunctive mood in 
French.* 

This is a large order. It is also a bad 
test. The fact that a candidate has for- 
gotten one or all of the rules for the 
subjunctive does not prove that he would 
make any mistake in their use. Which 
is the more important— to aocumulate 
knowledge about a language, or to be 
able to use it ? 

The above question assumes that it is 
the former. Is this really the opinion of 
the C. W. B. ? 

And again, consider this : 
'Give a few examples of metathesis — 
%.«., transposition of consonants.' 

Is it possible, we ask, for pedantry to 
go further ? 

We don't know what the Welsh teachers 
think about it all, but we shall be sur- 
prised if they do not protest. 

Next month we shall have something 
to say about the other papers, junior and 
senior. X. 



GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETT, OXFORD. 



A SociBTT has recently been founded in 
Oxford by all the German students of the 
University, with the object of facilitating 
the interchange of ideas and of encour- 
aging mutual understanding between the 
two nations. In this it is following 
the noble example of the founder of the 
Rhodes Scholarships. 

Since in Germany there is no equiva- 
lent to the English college system, it is, 
unfortunately, often difficult for foreigners 
to obtain a proper insight into German 



life. It is the endeavour of the Society 
to help them in this respect. It will 
provide any young Englishmen who 
wish to visit Germany with informa- 
mation of every kind, assist them with 
practical advice, and procure for them 
letters of introduction to men of soientifio 
and social importance. 

The Society is in connexion with the 
German Grovemment and Universities, 
and has, as honorary and corresponding 
members, a large number of persons who 



GERMAN SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY, OXFORD 



213 



have made themselvas prominent in 
different walks of life, and who have 
promised to reoeive young Englishmen 
who are travelling in Germany, and to 
help them in every way. These members 
are spread over the whole of Germany. 
The fact that so large a nnmber of men 
of all grades of society have promised 
their support to the Society shows un- 
deniably that the German nation, as a 
whole, is far from harbouring any hostile 
feeling towards England, and that the 
prospect of a better mutual understanding 
between the two nations is universally 
received with joy. 

The Society is about to engage rooms 
in Oxford, where books of reference, the 
publications and schedules of lectures of 
all the German Universities, together with 
a large number of papers, periodicals, etc., 
will be kept. Furthermore, it is the 
object of the Society to encourage as far 
as possible the exchange of English and 
German teachers. This should prove to 
be a very useful institution, but it has 
not yet been possible to conclude the 
preliminary arrangements. 

It might be mentioned here that 
numerous German editors, publishers, 
and authors have promised to send their 
publications to the Society without re- 



muneration. This has been done to help 
the Society, whose ftmds are as yet very 
limited. These newspapers, journals, etc, 
will, as has been already stated, be plaoed 
in a room accessible to the public. Thus 
the Sodety hopes to be able to produce a 
representative picture of modem German' 
literature. 

Germans who are stndymg in England 
are ordinary members. There are English 
and German honorary members, and 
Germans who offer to further the aims of 
the Society become corresponding mem- 
bers, while Englishmen who are interested 
in its objects become extraordinary mem- 
bers. The latter— i.e., ordinary English 
members — only take upon themselves 
the responsibility of making the Sodety 
known amongst their friends, and of 
making use of its services whenever 
poflsible. They pay no subscription. 

All communications should be addressed 
to the Hon. Sec : 

Babon W. yok Ow. Waohxndorf, 
Chriat Church, 

or to the English Hon. Sec. : 

J. H. Clark, 

ChrutChwreh, 
Oxford, 



INSTITUT PRANgAIS POUR STRANGERS A PARIS. 



SoMX years ago Dr. Breul wrote a pam- 
phlet containing * Vorschlage betreffend 
die Griindung eines Beichsinstituts fiir 
Lehrer des Englischen in London.' 
Although this BeiehsinUitiU has not yet 
materialized in London, Dr. Breul may 
feel gratified at having inspired Professor 
Oharles Schweitzer to establish an institute 
for teachers of French at Paris. The 
programme has been issued, and can be 
obtained of M. Schweitzer (who is the 
diretUur), ^icole des Hautes litudes 
Sociales, 16 rue de la Sorbonne, Paris. 

A prominent fsature is the /eoU pratique, 
divided into an elementary and a superior 
class. The programme dm digr/ eUmen- 



taire embraces: (1) Exercices de phon^ 
tique et de prononciation ; r^itation. 
(2) Conversations sur des sigets usuels. 
(8) Description de tableaux muraux. 
(4) Lectures faciles. (6) Petits r^ts, 
faits divers de joumaux. (6) Lettres et 
reactions sur des themes simples. 
(7) Grammaire et idiotismes. The pro- 
gramme du degri eupMeur includes: 
(1) Phon^tique, prononciation, lecture 
expressive, diction. (2) Explication 
d'auteurs vari^ choisis parmi lesmodemes ; 
lecture de joumaux. (8) Les todiants 
seront invito k fiure, k tour de rdle, dee con- 
fdrences sur les observations personnellee 
qu'ils anront reooeillieB ooncemant la vie 

15—2 



214 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



aociale en France, tnr one replantation 
th^trale k laquelle ils aoront assist^, sor 
des livree Ins, sur telle on telle oenvre 
d*art, etc. ; chaque conference sera snivie 
d'nne diBcnasion k laqnelle tons lea audi- 
tenrs prendront part. (4) Des redactions 
Rentes seront faites snr des si^ets ana- 
lognes. (5) ^tude de la grammaire et dee 
idiotismes. 

There is also a section pMagogique, in 
which the following subjects are treated : 
(1) Examen critiqae des methodes en 
usage. (2) Rdle de la phon^tique dans 
Fenseignement. (3) Acquisition du vooa- 
bulaire et enseignement de la grammaire. 



(4) Lefons modules fisites par le pro- 
fesaeur (enseignement par la vne, expUoa- 
tion d'nn texte, etc). (5) Lemons faites k 
tour de rdle par un des ^tudiants, et suiTies 
d*une critique. (6) Explication d'on mor- 
ceaa choisi, suivie d'un commentaire litt6- 
raire et linguistique. 

Considering the very attraotiTe nature 
of this programme and the other adTan- 
tages offered, the fees must be considered 
very low (40 francs for one month, 180 
francs for six months). M. Schweitzer 
is evidently reckoning on a considerable 
number of students, and we ainoerely hope 
that he may not be disappointed. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 



Thx ordinary monthly meeting of the 
Executive Committee was held at the 
College of Preceptors on Saturday, 
October 31. 

Present : Messrs. Somerville (chair), 
Allpress, Miss Batchelor, Messrs. Ed- 
wards, Eve, von Glehn, Hutton, Kirkman, 
Milner-Barry. Pollard, Rippmann, Robert- 
son, Miss Shearson, Messrs. Storr, Twenty- 
man, and the Hon. Secretary. 

Mr. Cloudesley Brereton was also present 
by permission of the chairman. 

Letters expressing regret for inability 
to attend were read from Professor Fiedler 
and Mr. Payen-Payne. 

The minutes of the last meeting were 
read and coniirmed. The Hon. Secretary 
reported that the letter on the study of 
German in secondary schools had been 
sent to the President of the Board of 
Education, and an acknowledgment 
received. 

The Report of the Committee on the 
Training of Modem Language Teachers 
was taken into consideration and discussed 
in detail. This discussion occupied nearly • 
the whole of 'the sitting, the ultimate 
result being that it was resolved, while 
thanking the Training Committee for 
their labours, to ask them to reconsider 
a number of points. 

The programme of the Annual General 



Meeting, so fiw as arranged, was sanc- 
tioned. 

A course of lectures on the teaching 
of French, to be given by Mr. von 
Glehn in January, was arranged. A 
notice of this will be found in another 
column. 

The Rev. H. J. Chaytor was appointed 
Local Secretary for Plymouth, and Mr. 
S. A. Moor Local Secretary for Westr 
moreland. 

The following eighteen new members 
were elected : 

F. Sturgis Allen, LL.B., 246, Central 
Street, Springfield. Mass., U.S.A. 

Miss £. Andrew. High School, Exeter. 

A. G. Baker, A.B., G. and C. Merriam 
Ca, Springfield, Mass., U.S.A. 

Miss W. J. Best, Belle Yue Girls* 
Secondary School, Bradford, Yorka. 

Hon. Alice Bruce, M.A., Somerville 
College, Oxford. 

H. K Cory, A.B., 36, Conant Hall, 
Cambridge, Mass., U.S. A. 

£. Courtoit, Institut Sup^eor de Com- 
merce, Antwerp. 

T. P. Cross, A.B., 1709, Cambridge 
Street, Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A. 

S. W. Grace. Ascham School, East- 
bourne. 

Miss M. J. Lavington, Girls* Modem 
School, Leeds. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 



215 



£. B. Milnes, B. A.. King Edward YII/s 
School, King's Lynn. 

Bey. C. Forbes Mailer, M.A., Bepton 
School. 

Professor T. W. Nadal, A.M., 71, 
Hammond Street j Cambridge, Mass., 
U.S.A. 

Miss £. M. Overend, B.A., Somerville 
College, Oxford. 

Miss 0. M. Stone, B.A., Girrs High 
School, Stafford. 

Miss T. Walker, Secondary School for 
Girls, Elland, Yorks. 

Miss K. Ware, L.C.P., St Peter's, 
Weston-super-Mare. 

W. T. Young, M.A.. Goldsmith's 
College, S.E. 



The Travelling Exhibition will be on 
view at Ipswich for a week beginning 
Koyember 12. A meeting has been 
arranged for Saturday, November 14, 
when a discusraon on the Beform move- 
ment in language teaching will be opened 
by Mr. G. F. Bridge. Steps are also 
being taken to arrange a meeting at 
Bournemouth. The Hon. Secretary will 
be very glad to hear from any Local 
Secretary or other member who would 
like to see the Modem Language teachers 
in his or her town following the example 
of those at Ipswich and Bournemouth. 



M. Boubaud, whose theatrical tours in 
Germany were mentioned at the last 
annual meeting, has arranged to give a 
series of performances of French plays 
at English schools and colleges. M. Bon- 
baud's repertoire consists of the following 
pieces: VAvare and Le Miaanthrape by 
Moli^, MIU de la Seisflih^ by Sandeau, 



Le Voyage de M, Perriehon by Labiche, 
and L*Anglai8 tel qu'on le parle by 
Bernard. Summaries of the plays will 
be supplied to the audience, and the 
performers are desired to speak slowly and 
with special distinctness. As M. Boubaud, 
by the way, has been fortunate enough 
to secure the assistance of some actors and 
actresses connected with the best Parisian 
theatres, his performances are likely to 
be, amongst other things, a lesson in the 
pronunciation of French. The tour begins 
in London on January 20. Further 
information may be had from the Hon. 
Secretary of the Modem Language Associa- 
tion, or from M. Boubaud at 1, Bue 
Blanche, Paris. 



The Executive Committee has arranged 
for a course of five lectures on the teach- 
ing of French to be given in London by 
Mr. von Glehn, M.A., Assistant Master 
at the Perse School, Cambridge, begin- 
ning on January 4. Mr. von Glehn will 
deal mainly with the early and middle 
stages of French teaching. The prioe of 
tickets will be 8a 6d. to members of the 
Association, and 7s. 6d. to others. Details 
of place and hour will be published later. 
Application for tickets should be made to 
the Hon. Secretary, 45, South Hill Park, 
Hampstead, K.W. 



Nominations for the General Committee 
for 1909 must be sent to the Hon. Secre- 
tary not later than December 1. There 
are eight vacancies to be filled, and the 
retiring members are not eligible for 
re-election till after the lapse of one 
year. 



ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING. 



As members already know, the Annual 
General Meeting will be held at Oxford 
on January 12 and 18. We hope that 
there will be a large attendance, for the 
meeting promises to be of more than 
ordinary interest. A large and influential 



local committee has been formed at 
Oxford, and at its head is the Yioe- 
Chancellor (Mr. T. H. Warren, President 
of Magdalen College), who is showing the 
greatest interest in the gathering. It is 
certain, therefore, that all who travel 



216 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



to Oxford in JamiAry will receive a very 
hearty welcome. The programme of the 
meeting is not yet complete, bat some 
itema are arranged. The presidential 
address will be delivered by Lord Fitz- 
maorioe, now Lord President of the 
Oonncil and a Cabinet Minister, on 
January 12. His lordship is known as 
an author and a scholar no less than as 
a diplomatist and a politician, and we 
may be sure of hearing an interesting and 
valuable disoourse. A special feature of 
the programme will be addresses on 
literary subjects in French and German. 

The principal topic for discussion will 
be the t>eaohing of foreign languages in 



middle and higher forms of schoola. The 
openers will be Mr. von Glehn and Miss 
Partington, and the debate shoold bo 
instructive, for much has been said and 
written on language-teaching in its ele- 
mentary stages, but comparatively little 
about advanced work. Further disoussionB 
are being arranged. Nor will the ameni- 
ties of life be forgotten, for the local 
Oommittee are arranging a reception on 
the evening of Monday, January 11, and 
a dinner on the following evening. 

The full programme will be sent to 
members with the Deoember number of 
Modern Lanouags Tbaohino. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



THESE SORT OF QUESTIONS. 

MoNsisuB, — II y a cinq mois que je suis 
en Angleterre dans le but d'apprendre 
votre belle langue. Elle est diablement 
difficile, il faut Tavouer. Je parle d^jk 
assez bien ; mais en ce qui conceme la 
langue litt^raire, c'est une autre paire de 
manches, et sea finesses me mcttcnt souvent 
au d^sespoir. On m'a dit qu'il fallait me 
m^er des joumaux k bon marche dans le 
genre du Daily Mail; I'anglais qu'on y 
^rit ne serait pas toujours du meilleur 
aloi. En revanche, je lis assidument votre 
savante revue. Je sais de bonne source 
qu'elle est I'organe des maitrea lea plus 
qualifies d' Angleterre en bon langage, 
qu'elle pent satisfaire le puriste le plus 
exigeant ; en un mot, qu'elle renferme 
oe que vous appelez le King's English, 
Oomme je mc destine k I'enseignement 
des langues vivantes en France, je peux 
d^j& m'appeler en quelque aorte un col- 
l^ue ; c'est pourquoi je me permets, 
monsieur, de voua demander une explica- 
tion au aujet d'une phrase que j*ai trouv^e 
k la page 173 de votre dernier num^ro, et 
dont la construction m'a beaucoup intrigu^. 
Void cette phraae : ITiese sort of questions 
are now largely abandoned. En fran^ais, 
comme vous le aavez sana doute, Tacyectif 



d^monstratif s'accorde toigours avec son 
substantif^ et le verbe avec son s^joL 
J'avais cm jusqu'ici qu'il en ^tait de m€me 
«n anglais ; mais je vous avoue qn*aprds 
avoir lu oette phrase, je suis oompldtement 
ddrout^. Ges regies auraient-elles des 
exceptions T Je serais heureux de les oon- 
nattre. Si I'un de vos savants lecteurs 
voulait bien m'expliquer ce myst^, je lui 
seraia on ne pent plus reoonnaissant. 

Agr^, monsieur, je vous prie, Texpres- 
sion de ma plus haute consideration. 

JULXS PiNQOXnN. 

Le mardi, 20 oetohre, 1908. 

DICTATION IN THE FOREIGN 
TONGUE. 

Ths following lines are apparently cor- 
rupt, though obviously intended for Eng- 
lish. In point of fact, the correct and 
original version ia to be found in a well- 
known poem by a standard English author. 
The version I send you is composite, 
collated from some twenty different manu- 
scripts. It illustrates admirably the dangers 
of dictating to foreign students an ' unseen * 
passage in one*s own tongue. The pupils 
in this case were the III»« Classe of a 
Gymnase (more than 100 miles from Ptoia), 



REVIEWS 



217 



which, at the request of their master, an 
Englishman, I had, some months ago, 
the pleasure of examining. The lines 
were taken from the class reading-books, 
but the boys had never seen or heard them 
before. They were dictated slowly and 
distinctly three times over in the ordinary 
way. Readers familiar with the difficulties 
of corrupt passages in the ancient classics, 
as well as those engaged in the teaching 
of modem languages, should find here 
food for reflection. I append the com- 
posite, with some notable variants : 

It was about the lowly clothes of whom 
summer day. 

There came a gaunt munching ohip^ fool- 
sail^ to plumeth bay ; 

There croo half siou nave kill'd black 
fleed* beyon^ Aurigny's eye,* 

At hurriesf quilight on the wails* like 
Heaving' many a mile. 



Variants. 

^ Gallon marchand— matter chup [Is 
mutton chop]. 

« For seU[? = for sale]. 

» Fleece [f=fleas]. 

* Orindecaills — orilies iled — oreignies — 
Orinia's — omauries — the young or regnous 
ile. 

■ Urlians. 

« Wames. 

' ?= Heaven. 

The importance and variety of the 
phonetic questions involved in these cases 
of 'mishearing' would afford scope for 
an independent article, for which I 
hesitate to ask you to find room. 

M. MONTOOMSBT 

(Lektor f» English^ Qieusn 
Uniwrsity). 



REVIEWS. 



Cambridge Hialory of English LiUraiure, 
VoL ii. (Cambridge University Press.) 
Pp. 539. Price 9s. net 

This instalment, which brings us to 
' The Snd of the Middle Ages,' deals with 
matters more generally interesting than 
those considered in the first volume of the 
series. Chaucer, Wyclif. * The Vision of 
William concerning Piers the Plowman * — 
these are subjects which are attractive to 
all lovers of letters, as well as to professed 
students of literature. Professor Manly's 
chapter on *Rers the Plowman ' is, perhaps, 
the most important in the book, and is 
likely to prove epoch-making in the study 
of that poem. It is not often that a great 
literary discovery is first promulgated in a 
compendium of this kind, but Professor 
Manly, with admirable modesty, is con- 
tent to state his views in this form, with- 
out any attempt to direct undue attention 
to their author. A year or two ago he 
published a paper in Modern Philology on 
'The Lost Leaf of Piers the Plowman^* 
in which it appeared that he was not 
satisfied with the theories of authorship 
usually accepted. In this new and ftdler 



statement of his opinions, he seems to 
upset the conclusions of Skeat and Jns- 
serand, and to deprive Langland once and 
for all of the credit that has so long been 
given him. We await with interest the 
publication of Professor Manly's detailed 
evidence in support of his theory ; mean- 
while, we are forced to conclude that he is 
probably right in supposing that the poem 
is the work of several different men. and 
not the creation of a single author. The 
differences between Texts A, B and C, as 
detailed by him, do appear, to an unbiassed 
reader, to point to the work of several 
authors rather than to fluent revision 
by a single writer at various stages in his 
career. 

This is not the place to discuss Pro- 
fessor Manly's views at length. It is, how- 
ever, only right to state that he does not 
allow them to take undue precedence over 
simple literary appreciation. His * prin- 
cipal concern is with the poems themselves 
as literary monuments/ and his criticism 
is extremely apt and illuminating. 
M. Jusserand himself has not a clearer 
conception of and delight in the poetical 



218 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



qualities displayed in the * Vision.' The 
whole chapter merits very careful reading. 
We wish we could say the same of Pro- 
fessor Saintsbury's article on Ohauoer, 
which is woefully disappointing — inade- 
quate in matter, and slipshod and affected 
in style. It reads like the work of a brilliant 
journalist who is • getting-up ' his subject 
as he goes along ; it has not the assurance, 
dignity, and knowledge which we have a 
right to expect from a scholar writing 
with the authority of Professor Saints- 
bury's position. There are careless mis- 
prints, such as that on p. 161, where the 
name of Francis Thynne is substituted 
for that of William as the first editor of 
Chaucer's collected works. Though it is 
true this particular slip is corrected in the 
very unobtrusive list of errata at the end 
of the book, it is one which is significant 
of the way in which the work has been 
done, for no serious student of the subject 
could have passed such a mistake in proof. 
Again, there are misleading statements, 
such as that about the versification of 
Sir Thopas (p. 181): *The verse . . . 
is of the smoothest variety of "romance 
six " or rime cou^ (664664, aabccb). ' Any- 
one unacquainted with the tale would 
surely deduce that it was written through- 
out in a six-lined stanza : no one could 
suppose tbat it illustrated many types 
of romance verse, and that the variety 
is part of the exquisite parody to which 
Professor Saintsbury draws attention. 
Once more, what is meant by the remark 
(p. 171) that ' rime royal * is * the only dis- 
tinguishing name ' for the measure which 
is at least equally well known as the 
* Chaucerian ' or * Troilus * stanza ? Were 
it worth while, instances of this kind 
might be multiplied. There are other and 
more serious errors to be noticed — foolish 
sneers at the men who have done so much 
for Chaucerian scholarship (p. 167, § 2, 
p. 175, 1. 30, etc.), and culpable omissions, 
as in the cursory reference to the two 
prologues to The Legend of Good Women, 
But we prefer to draw attention to the one 
thing in |the chapter which may add to 
Professor Saintsbury's reputation. His 



treatment of Ohauoer's hnmonr is admir- 
able—delightfully appreciative and pene- 
trating. We should be very sorry to lose 
the passage which deals with it (p. 191) ; 
but apart from these paragraphs, we think 
the editors would be well advised to 
ask some accredited Chancer scholar — 
Mr. Pollard, for example — to rewrite the 
article for any future impression of the 
volume. The Chaucer bibliography (pp. 
455, et seq,), compiled by Miss Panes, 
merits a special word of praise, thoogh 
the bibliographies are almost all of them 
excellent, and likely to be of real service 
to students. 

We have not left ourselves space to con- 
sider the rest of this valuable volume at 
all in detail. It is impossible to pass over 
Mr. Macaulay's chapter on Gower, which 
shows ripe scholarship and equally mature 
self-restraint and sense of proportion ; 
Miss Greenwood's articles on medieval 
prose are extremely interesting, and sum 
up all the most recent investigations on 
the subject in a style that has not suffered 
by contact with fourteenth and fifteenth 
century prolixity. Scotch literature is 
satisfactorily treated by Mr. Giles and 
Professor Gregory Smith, and the other 
chapters are all adequate and scholarly. 
Professor Gummere's paper on * Ballads ' 
is written by one of the greatest living 
authorities on the subject ; it is fidl of 
detailed knowledge, equalled only by the 
enthusiasm with which this is quickened 
and inspired : ' The aesthetio values of 
the ballad call for no long comment. . . . 
The appeal is straight. . . . They can 
tell a good tale. They are fresh with the 
open air ; wind and sunshine play through 
them ; and the distinction, old as criticism 
itself, which assigns them to nature rather 
than to art, though it was overworked by 
the romantic school and will be always 
liable to abuse, ia practical and sound.' 

Finally, it can safely be said that any- 
one who carefully reads this volume will 
be convinced— if he lack conviction — that 
Mr. Waller's concluding statement about 
fifteenth -century literature is far more 
justifiable than that which is more com- 



REVIEWS 



219 



monly made by the half-informed. ' It is 
not deficient either in variety of utterance 
or in many-sidedneas of interest. It is not 
merely fhll of the promise that all periods 
of transition possess, but its actual accom- 
plishment is not to be contemned, and its 
products are not devoid either of humour 
or of beauty.' 

EHzabeOian Drama, 1558-1642. By Felix 
E. Schelling, Professor of English in the 
University of Philadelphia. Two vols. 
(Constable and Ck>.) Pp. 606 and 685. 
Price 31s. 6d. net 

The object of this searching and pro- 
found study of Elizabethan drama is best 
explained in the author's own words. 
Professor Schelling holds that *a litera- 
ture can no more justly be studied in those 
works alone which have stood the test of 
time, than the ethnology of a race can be 
decided solely on the traits of its Bis- 
marcks or its Darwins.' He estimates that 
at least fifteen hundred new plays appeared 
in the eighty- four years that passed 
between Elizabeth's accession and the 
closing of the theatres by the Puritans in 
1642, and it is the purpose of his investi- 
gation ' to determine the development of 
species among dramatic compositions 
within the period ; to ascertain, as nearly 
as possible, the character of each play 
considered, and refer it to its type; to 
establish its relations to what had pre- 
ceded and to what was to follow; and 
definitely to learn when a given dramatic 
species appeared, how long it continued, 
and when it was superseded by other forms.' 
Anyone who diligently studies the re- 
sults of Professor Schelling's explorations 
into regions often little known, will 
acknowledge the literal truth of his asser- 
tion that ' the chief sources for this book 
have been the original texts themselves.' 
His points of view are independent and 
convincing, and he treats the facts he has 
accumulated in a new way. Perhaps this 
independence is best exemplified by his 
consideration of Shakespeare, whose plays 
are not examined together as the work of 
a single author, who towers head and 
shoulders above his contemporaries. On 



the contrary, the plays are referred to 
their several categories^-romantic comedy, 
romantic tragedy, history, tragi-comedy, 
and the rest — and there shown side by side 
with other dramas of the same class. As 
a result, while Shakespeare's superiority 
is firmly established, he is yet shown in 
proper perspective. We learn to realize 
the work that was being accomplished by 
his contemporaries, and to grasp their 
relative achievements. ' Shakespeare's 
own overshadowing greatness ' is not 
allowed to distort and obscure 'the true 
proportions of his vigorous and manifold 
age.' 

Professor Schelling is peculiarly happy 
in his treatment of the 'Comedy of 
Humours and of London Life,' and he 
distinguishes most carefully between the 
earlier and later 'Comedy of Manners.' 
The ' many distinctions and divisions ' for 
which he apologizes, are most helpful to 
the reader who is anxious to keep the 
various stages of growth and decadence 
dearly in mind, and we know no other 
book which makes equally plain the multi- 
farious influences which went to mould 
Elizabethan drama. Professor Schelling's 
work is an indispensable aid to students 
of the period with which it deals, and 
should find a place in every reference- 
library. The bibliographical essay, which 
is a commentary on, as well as a list of 
books, is in itself unique ; the list of plays 
written, acted, or published, between the 
years 1558 and 1642 is invaluable, though 
we could wish it were chronological in- 
stead of alphabetical ; the index is as full, 
scholarly and careful as everything else in 
this admirable book. 

It would be pleasant to discuss some of 
Professor Schelling's opinions at length, 
but perhaps we can do the student no 
greater service than to refer him to the 
work itself. He may not always agree 
with the conclusions that have been 
reached ; it will not be the author's fault 
if he fail to recognize and to respect the 
learning, patience, and critical faculty 
which have helped in their formation. 
Professor Schelling has read wisely as well 



220 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



as deeply; he jadgee Elizabethan drama 
well because he so intensely realizes the 
reason of its lasting vitality : * It presents 
life to us hopefully, not cynically nor 
pessimistioally, and possesses, as few litera- 
tures have ever possessed, the power to 
disclose the world as it is, and simul- 
taneously guide the delighted reader to a 
realization of that world transfigured by 
the magic of poetry.' 

CoUridge*8 Literary Oritieinn, With an 
Introduction by J. W. Mackail. 
(London: Henry Frowde, 1908.) Pp. 
zix + 266. Price 2s. 6d. net 

It is always a privilege to be admitted 
into the company of Coleridge, and this is 
especially the case when he is telling us 
' what poetry meant to the author of the 
Ancient Mariner and Christabel.* This 
little volume, which brings together in 
an attractive form the great bulk of 
Coleridge's Literary Critieism, supplies a 
very real need of students of literature. 
It is no small boon to be able to obtain in 
a single volume, the best of what he has 
written about poets and poetry. The 
editor, whose name is not mentioned, has 
done his work admirably, and we can only 
offer him our grateful thsnks. 

Professor Mackail's scholarly and in- 
teresting introduction suggests that he is 
not altogether in sympathy with Cole- 
ridge's mysticism, his search for 'the 
absolute.' What Professor Mackail stig- 
matizes (p. iz) as * large incoherent ab- 
stractions,' are surely something more 
than mere * rhetoric,' * barren word-play.' 
In the very definition quoted, Coleridge 
marshalls the intellectual faculties in due 
order ; he does not undervalue the more 
prosaic mental attributes, but he empha- 
sizes the faith which inspires his criticism 
and his poetry alike — that poetry is the 
identity of all knowledge, and that mere 
knowledge is subordinate to the higher 
gift of imagination, which knows how to 
connect reason and understanding with 
the will and inspiration of the whole 
world. It is this realization on the part 
of Coleridge which makes his criticism so 
inspiring and refreshing. He is a mystic 



and philosopher, yet one who has, in his 
criticism, a dose grasp of fiscts* His 
enthusiasm is infectious, the intimate 
knowledge is convincing, and these, com- 
bined with the insight of a poet, render 
Coleridge one of the greatest and moat 
suggestive of English critics. It is the 
aim of Coleridge to combine clear intel- 
lectual analvsis with spirituality and 
insight. Often he succeeds ; often, too, 
he fails, and becomes over-subtle and sym- 
bolical; but his suggestions contain the 
germ of higher development, and the fore- 
taste of an ideal criticism. 

Professor ICaokail is most convincing 
when he most dearly discerns Coleridge's 
power as a guide to the study of literature, 
'where he abandons himself, as it were, 
to his own poetical sensitiveness, and uses 
his unequalled power of making language 
a vehicle of emotion.' He is perhaps lees 
successful when he endeavours to prove 
that Coleridge tries to identify poetry and 
philosophy, and in so doing ceases to be 
either poet or critic. But it is entirely 
true that a ' trained faculty and a sound 
judgment ' are demanded * when we study 
Coleridge's Literary Oriticiani,' and that 
this ' is just one of the main causes why 
the study of it is not only illuminating, but 
stimulating and formative in so high a 
degree. ' For this reason, also, we welcome 
the publication of this volume. 

Brouming'a Strafford. Edited by HxRS- 
FORD GsoRGS. (Clarendon Pr^ 1908.) 
Crown 8vo. Pp. xx-h90. Price 2s. 

If Browning's tragedy is to be used as a 
supplement to the history lesson — and we 
by no means deny that as such it will 
serve a useful purpose — ^then this edition 
by Mr. George will be found quite' satis- 
factory. The print is good, the price is 
comparatively low, and the introduction 
gives an adequate account of the political 
situation, and of the part played by Straf- 
ford. The notes are meagre, though some 
are also superfluous, since the information 
contained in them would naturally be 
given by any competent teacher, if 
indeed it were required. We fancy, how- 
ever, that a form able to appreciate 



REVIEWS 



221 



Browning, would also know that ' it was 
a distingQishing habit of the Puritans to 
introduce into their talk references to the 
Bible '; or the meaning of ' Thorough/ as 
used by Strafford ; or that * Laud's main 
object in life was to Impose on everyone 
his own pattern of Church obsenrances.' 
Frankly, we think any ordinary cheap 
edition of Browning in the hands of a 
good teacher would serve quite as well as 
this special text, which contains no word 
of literaiy appreciation or comment, and 
draws all that is valuable in its introduc- 
tion from Professor Oardiner*s history, 
which is in every respectable school 
library. 

PcuaageB for Paraphrasing. Selected by 
D. M. James, M.A. Edinbureh and 
London : Wm. Blackwood and Sons. 
Pp. 91. Price 6d. 

It is regrettable that there is still 
enough demand for books of this kind to 
warrant a new edition. Paraphrasing of 
the old-fashioned type is a vicious exercise, 
for it is infamous to ask a child to turn 
into his own halting language what has 
been said once and for all by a great 
master. This is specially the case if the 
passage set is poetry. The fact, therefore, 
that Mr. James has chosen many fine 
extracts, is an argument against the use of 
his book. The examples of paraphrasing 
which he gives in the preface, are further 
proofs that the power of expression should 
be cultivated in other ways. 

Johnson on Shakespeare, With an Intro- 
duction by Walter Ralsioh. London : 
Henry Frowde, 1908. Pp. 3ricxi + 206. 
Price 2s. 6d. 

This is a delightful little book, which 
helps to emphasize the fact that Johnson 
is a great writer, who, much as he owes to 
Boswell in many respects, lives by his own 
merit as a man of letters. It has been too 
often taken for granted that Johnson's 
writings would long since have been for- 
gotten but for the charm of his personality. 
This is not so. His criticism is perennially 
fresh and independent, even when, as 
sometimes happens, wrong-headed. It is 
nowhere better than in the notes on 



Shakespeare. As Professor Baleigk says 
in his admirable Introduction, ' They are 
written informally and fluently ; they are 
packed full of observation and wisdom ;' 
and they are the work of one who from 
his boyhood had been thrilled and excited 
by the great moments of Shakespeare's 
drama. No student of Shakespeare or of 
Shakespearean criticism can afford to 
neglect the Preface and Notes. No 
reader of current scholarly investigation 
will willingly omit to read the work of 
Professor Raleigh, himself among the most 
distinguished of modem critics of Shake- 
speare. To all such, and to all who have 
fallen under the sway of the great dictator 
of letters, we confidently recommend the 
latest addition to Mr. Frowde's valuable 
series of reprints. 

Charles Dickens et Alphonse Daudet: 
Homanciers de V Enfant et des Humbles. 
Par William Angus Munko. Tou- 
louse : Edouard Privat, 1908. Pp. 128. 

The title of this essay sufficiently 
explains its scope. Dr. Munro institutes 
an interesting comparison between the 
two writers and their treatment of social 
problems. His work illustrates the inter- 
relation of French and English literature, 
and is another proof that the modem 
novel in France, as well as in England, is 
keenly alive to the ^ spirit of the age,' as 
exemplified in political and philanthropic 
movements. The literary criticism is in- 
telligent, but neither very profound nor 
very original. 

The y<mng Norseman, By William 
Bbiohtt Bands. Illustrated by M. M. 
Williams. London: David Nut t, 1907. 
Pp. 268. Price 8s. 6d. 

This is a reprint of a book first pub- 
lished some forty years ago, and it bears 
traces of its age. The story introduoes us 
to the Norse legends and mythology as 
they appeared towards the end of the 
Viking age. These tales are woven some- 
what unskilfully into a plot in which they 
have no real place, even though its hero is 
a Norseman living in Iceland. The world 
of the Northmen is always attractive to 
English boys and girls, but, frankly, we 



222 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



think they might learn to know it more 
easily by other means. The book is well 
printed and bound, and the illustrations 
are good. 

Conies d NouvelUs: Prospbr Mxeimxe. 
Edited by J. £. Miohbll, M.A., Ph.D. 
Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1907. Price 
2s. net. Pp. XX + 126 (text 96, 
notes 27). 

lambes et Pohnes: AvousTX Barbies. 
Edited by Ch.-M. Garkisr. Oxford: 
Clarendon Press. 1907. Price 2s. net 
Pp. lvi+18<J (text 106, notes 80). 

La LAj/ende de$ SiMes: Victor Hugo. 
Edited by O. F. Bridge, M. A. Oxford : 
Clarendon Press, 1907. Price Ss. net 
Pp. xxxi + 179 (text 143, notes 32). 

Three more of these very useful editions 
of M. Delbos* Oxford Higher French 
Series, with their excellent print and 
paper, a pleasure to read. The ConUs et 
NouvelUs and La L^ende des Siklee 
contain a useful bibliography of study 
and criticism as well as of the author's 
works. • Whenever it has been possible, 
each volume has been adorned with a 
portrait of the author at the time he wrote 
his book.' The three portraits before us 
add much to the attractiveness of the 
volumes. 

Contes et NouvelUs (no table of contents) 
comprises such well-known writings of 
*the prince of the French short story' 
as Mateo Falcone, Vision de Charles XL, 
Tamango, Carmen, L'Enl^vement de la 
Redoute. The notes are wisely confined 
almost entirely to the elucidation of 
historical references, or to biographical 
allusions. In a scholarly edition like 
this, we expect a higher standard of 
English than is revealed by the following 
passages from the Introduction: 'The 
mother . . . moulded his mind, which 
assumed, quite early in life, an un- 
sympathetic, sceptical, and matter-of-fact 
attitude, and for which M^rim^ himself 
was totally unable to account ;' ' sterling 
good work ;' ' stimulated his old interest 
in the classics ;' ' taking office imder the 
Imperial Government, and his unfortunate 
espousal of the Libri cause, made many 
of those friends . . . drift away from 



him ;' ' it is nseless betraying your feel- 
ing ;' ' the cultivated ironist.' 

lambes et Po^mes: 'As this selection 
includes rather more than three-fourths 
of the laimbes et Poinus, it may rank 
almost as a new edition either in England 
or France.' We do not doubt that for 
Sn^^ish readers, at any rate, this will 
serve as the standard edition of the best 
of Barbier's work for many a long year. 
The introduction alone would ensure that 
—a most illuminating and inspiring stody, 
a model of what a critical introduction 
should be. One is glad of the decision of 
the editor in chief: to secure 'that these 
introductions should be as characteristic 
as possible, and real studies of the various 
authors and their works' the editors 
write them in their own native language. 
The notes are fiill of appreciation and 
suggestiveness, of a literary value that is 
rare. Altogether this volume forms a 
most welcome edition of these splendid 
satires and poems — one of the finest of 
the series. Of the subject-matter we may 
perhaps be permitted to quote from the 
preface: 'Auguste Barbier n'eet pas un 
des grands noms de la poMe fran^aise: 
mais c'est un nom oonnu de tons en 
France et il est pen de coU^ens qui ne 
sachent par ooeur quelques-unes de ses 
strophes. Ses po^mes ont I'^tonnanto 
fortune de sonlever I'enthoaaiasme dee 
jeunes et de garder I'estime admirative 
des techniciens du vers et des oonnaisseurs 
passionn^s' . . . <De oes ^orits-lk, oe 
n'est pas par consequence, mais par 
essence, qu'on pent dire qu'ils sont non 
des mote, maiB des actes. lis sont baign^ 
de vie, de la vie artistique que salt, dans 
tout grand oeuvre, reoomposer Talchimie 
du gi^ie et. par surcrott — U est le 
prodige — baign^s de la vie aotaelle, agis- 
sante et pr^sente de I'honmie qu'on sent 
touch^ au plus profond de son dtre. Nnlle 
part ailleurs, sauf dans les efihsions des 
mystiques, on n'a autent la sensation de 
ccBur pantelant et d'&me transport^: 
nulle parte ailleurs, dans la po^ie fhm- 
9aiBe, on ne se sent plus prte de Pen- 
thousiasme sacri du votes antique.' 



REVIEWS 



223 



Coold our scholars do better than follow 
the example of the coU^giens of France ? 

La L4gmde des SikUs : Mr. Bridge has 
had a great opportunity and has used it 
welL The critical introduction, a very 
thoughtful and thorough piece of work, 
is in every way admirable. His treatment 
of Victor Hugo's work is so interesting 
and stimulating that it leaves one with 
a keen desire for further study, not only 
of La Liffende itself, but of all Victor 
Hugo's other writings, both prose and 
verse — a consummation greatly to be 
desired for the young student ' The notes, 
too. show not only thorough familiarity 
with the subject, but, a rarer quality, 
literary insight. 

Fleur de Neige, By £. 0. Hainssxlin. 
Blaokie. 4d. 

Pretty dances strung together by a slight 
fairy-tale. Do three short sentences such 
as constitute Scene 2 warrant a change of 
scene before and after ? 

Le Petit Orandphre et la Petite Orand-mhre, 
By Kate Webee, translated by Ankis 
BouRDASs. BUckie. 4d. 

This little play, already familiar in the 
original German, is charming. Simple, 
amusing, full of action, it is admirably 
suited for junior forms, and might well 
serve as a model of what Modem Language 
teachers need in the way of light plays for 
little people. 

Herr Peter Squem: Schimpfspiel in drei 
Au/zugen, Von Andreas G&tphius. 
Edited by Sidney H. Moore. Edward 
Arnold. Price 2s. 

It will probably be information even 
for some readers of this paper that Andreas 
Gryphius was a German author, that he 
was bom in 1616, and died in 1664. and 
that he is chiefly remembered — in so far 
as he is remembered at all — as a hymn- 
writer. Here comes now Mr. Moore, to 
remind us that he is also the author of 
three comedies, and that 'each of the 
three is a masterpiece.' We do not share 
Mr. Moore's enthusiastic admiration for 
the comedies of Gryphius ; nor are we 
even quite ready to admit that the play 
under consideration deserves to be called 



a comedy at all. Peter Squenz is the 
Quince of a company of actors who play 
Piramus wnd Thisbe before King Theodorus 
and his Court. It is very plainly an 
imitation of a part of Shakespeare's 
Midsummer Night* 8 Dream ; how close an 
imitation may be judged from the follow- 
ing speech of Klipperling, who plays the 
part of the lion : ' Kiimmert euch nicht, 
kiimmert euch nicht ; ich will so lieblich 
brullen, dass der Kbnig und die Konigin 
sagen sollen : mein liebes Lowichen, 
brtllle noch einmal.* The reader who is 
unfamiliar with the play may welcome a 
few more quotations : 

Squenz. Verschraubet euch durch Zu- 
tuung eurer Fusse und Niederlassung der 
hiutersten Oberschenkel auf hemmgesetzte 
Stuhle, schliesset die Bepositoria eures 
Gehimes auf, verschiesset die Mauler mit 
dem Schloss des StiUschweigens, leget 
enre sieben Sinne in Falten, Herr Peter 
Squenz (cum titulis plenissimis) hat etwas 
Nachdenkliches anzumelden (p. 18). 

PiBAMUS. Durotzigeryblasebalgmacher- 
ischer Dieb I Sollst du mich duzen f 
Weisst du nicht, dass ich ein koniglicher 
Diener bin f Schau, das gehort einem 
solchen Halunken (p. 42). 

Kricks [der Mond]. Itzund komm' ich 
herein eehunken, 
Ach lieben Leute, ich bin nicht trunken, 
Ich bin geboren zu Konstant- 
Tinopel, ist mein Vaterland. 
Ich nirchte, es werd' mir immer gehn, 
Wie meinem Vater ist geschehn. 
Dorselbe hatte boee Fiisse, 
Und biss nicht geme harte Niisse. 
Die Augen wer^n mir so dunkel, 
Sie sehen aus wie zwei Karfunkel. 
Ich schmiede wacker friihe und spat 
Und sage : Gott. sib guten Bat 
Ich schmiede. schlage tapfer zu, 
Was ich tu', muss mein knecht auoh tu'. 
Nun nehm' ich an einen neuen Orden 
Und bin der heilige Mondschein worden, 

(p. 47.) 

As may be imagined from the nature 
of the play, the German one finds in it 
is not of the purest description; queer 
and obsolete words abound, and there is a 
constant sprinkling of grotesque Latin. 
For these reasons we hesitate about re- 
commending the book for school use. On 
the other hand, there is no doubt that it 
throws some light on the ooone of German 



224 



MODERN LANaUAGE TEACHING 



literature during the teTenteenth oentory ; 
and perhapa, after all, it is meant chiefly 
for the dilettante student of literary 
corioaitiea. But the latter, we remember, 
is likely to be a iqneami»h kind of 
person, and we fear he may be shocked at 
notes oonched in snch language as this: 
'Euphuism as an efleotiTe literary fores 
in England was as dead as a door nail in 
1648 ' (p. 64). 

AmKhsin. A Oerman Stor^ for Beginners, 
with Grammar and Exercises. By Karl 
WiCHMANN, Ph.D. Pp. xii + 144. Ora 
Maritima Series. Swan Sonnensohein 
and Co. Price 2s. 

We want to speak well of this book. 
In the first place, we have been won over 
by an opinion expressed in the Pre&oe 
that ' the final aim of all foreign language 
instruction is to enable a pupil to become 
acquainted with the treasures of foreign 
literature.' of which even reformers in 
language teaching need to be reminded 
from time to time. Again, not many 
things in German literature have given us 
more pleasure than the 'Nibelungenlied'; 
and a large part of this book is taken up 
with an account of the adventures of 
Siegfried, related by Professor Wichmann 
in that simple and graceful narrative style 
to which both the story and the Qerman 
language lend themselves so well. We 
think we know the schoolboy's heart, and 

* The gleams and glooms that dart 
Across the schoolboy's brain ' ; 

and we believe that the adventures of 
Siegfried will commend themselves to him. 
All the more pity, we think, if the book 
has faults of method ; and we fear it has. 
In the first place, we find three pages 
(pp. 54-56) devoted to the pronunciation. 
Professor Wichmanu begins his remarks 
on this subject by saying : * Very few 
German sounds are exactly like the corre- 
spending English sounds. Consequently 
the English equivalents given below 
represent in most cases only approximately 
the sounds of the German vowels and 
consonants.' Since he is aware of this, 
would it not have been better to give 
the first few chapters in phonetic script, 



instead of telling the pupil that the 
vowels of Ocd and ChU are the same, as he 
does on p. 54 f 

The &st fourteen chapters of the book 
are headed as follows: Otto bei dem 
Onkel, Der Garten, Das SchnlziiDmer, 
Das Dorf, Die Kirohe, Der Heimwag, Das 
Gespraoh mit dem Onkel, Das Mittageasen, 
Vorbereitung zum Ausflug, Die Eisenbahn, 
Die Fahrt nach Xanten, In Xanten. Die 
Heimkehr von Xanten, Das Abendbrot 
With Chapter XY. the pupil is introduced 
to the German print The last words of 
Chapter XlV. are as follows: 'Dann 
setzten sich alle an den Tiach in der 
Mitte dee Zimmers, nnd Otto sagte : 
* ' Wirst du uns jetzt nioht die Geschichte 
von Siegfried erzahlen, lieber Onkel f 
" Mit Vergnttgen," sprach der Onkel nnd 
begann die folgende Geschichte.' In this 
way the author has sought to connect the 
two parts of the book. It is true that he 
has managed to get a great deal into the 
early chapters; but we still think they 
are not long enough to insure the pupU's 
mastering thoroughly the elementary con- 
structions of the language. At the end 
of the book are short lists of questions 
on the text ; in our opinion these should 
be much ftiller, and ^ey would be much 
better placed at the end of each chapter. 
We strongly object to the extent to which 
English and German are mixed up in the 
* Grammar and Exercises' at the end of 
the book. There is given on p. 122 a list 
of German grammatical terms with their 
English equivalents ; but we remain quite 
at a loss to understand what language 
Professor Wichmann expects to be spoken 
in the German lessons. If the pupils are 
to keep dodging backwards and forwards 
between one language and the other, we 
fear they will not make much progress. 
A vocabulary, in which every word, even 
down to the definite article der, is explained 
in English, does 'not find fi&vour with us 
either. 

In the lists of prepositions given on 
p. Ill, avMer is omitted from those that 
govern the dative, and wider frt>m those 
that govern the accusative. No mention 



REVIEWS 



225 



is made of any prepositions governing the 
genitive, although ipdhrend des Fistes 
oocors in the text (p. 40, line 13). 

The following sentence, occnrring in the 
material for free oompoeition on p. 90, we 
have had to read more than onoe : ' These 
sons, whose treasures Siegfried had divided, 
sent their giants against Siegfried, whom 
the hero slew.' 

The frontispiece is a map of the Shine 
district, and there are three other illnstra. 
tions of no great artistic merit. The 
general aspect of the book is neat. 

Professor Wiohmann states in his Pre&ce 
that * the method on which this book has 
been constructed is that which has been 
expounded and applied with so much 
success by Professor Sonnenschein in his 
Ora Maritima (1902)— a method which is 
as appUcabfb to a modem as to an ancient 
language.' It is pleasant — ^we say it in 
all sincerity — to see a teacher of modem 
languages learning method from a teacher 
of ancient languages. Might we venture 
to suggest that Professor Wichmann should 
now take a turn at learning from some of 
the members of his own Facht He has 
conceived and written a pleasant German 
text, fresh with interest, and free from 
stodginess ; on the other hand, he has 
not so treated his text as to make his 
book, from the point of view of method, 
acceptable to the most enlightened modem 
language teachers of the day. This ought 
he to have done, and not to have left the 
other undone. 



A Fint Spanish Book, By H. J. 
Ghattob, M.A. Pp. 214. Edward 
Amold. 2s. 6d. 

The main portion of the book consists 
of thirty-four lessons on Spanish grammar, 
each followed by exercises. Oompleting 
the volume are : a short chapter on Social 
Forms and Phrases, a section on Business 
and Commercial Correspondence, poetical 
selections, prose extracts, and a Spamsh- 
EngUsh vocabulary. 

The lessons and exercises, though not 
distinctly on Reform lines, have many 
excellent features. In the early stages 
each exerdse contains a 'group' vocabu- 
laiy, and in the later stages the exercises 
for translation depend for their vocabulary 
on the text of the Spanish extract immedi- 
ately preceding. These extracts are 
generally well chosen, but in some cases 
(Exercises 26 and 27, for example) illus- 
trate somewhat inadequately the gram- 
matical points discussed in the lesson. 
Students of Spanish, working without a 
teacher, will find tMs book well adapted 
to their needs. 

The Studewts* ElerMtUary Text-Book of 
Esperanto. ByL. P. Berbsford, LL.D.. 
M.A. Pp. 28. International Language 
Publishing Association. 2d. 

This modest booklet may be recom- 
mended as a convenient introduction to 
Esperanto ; it serves to show the remark- 
able simplicity of this language, which 
may weU rouse the interest of any student 
of philology. 



FROM HERE AND THERE. 



Thx first meeting of the Anolo-Italian 
LiTERA&T Society was held on October 27 
in the rooms of the Linnean Society, 
Burlington House, when Fleet-Surgeon 
Alfred Corrie presided, and an interesting 
address on ' Dante and Shakespeare ' was 
delivered by Father Sebastian Bowden, 
Rector of Brompton Oratory. The Society 
has been fomied for the study of Italian 
literature, and weekly meetings, devoted 
to the study and reading of Italian works 
of estabUshed reputation by ancient and 



modem authors of prose and poetry, will 
be held. In addition, lectures and ad- 
dresses in Italian and English by scholars 
of eminence have been arranged. The 
Society has the co-operation and support 
of Sir Dyce Duckworth, Sir Charles 
Holroyd, Professor A. J. Butler, Dr. V. 
Dickinson, and Mr. A. Stanford Morton, 
the acting secretary being Signer Canali. 
Tk % % 
On Tuesday, December 15, at the 
Theatre, Burlington Gardens, Milton's 



226 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



tragedy, ' Samson Agonistes,' will be pro- 
daoed, under the direction of Kr. William 
Poel, for the members of the British 
Academy and their friends. The part of 
Samson will be undertaken by Mr. Ian 
Maclaren. A public representation will 
be given on Wednesday evening. 
December 16. 

% % % 

Aberystwyth Univeisity Collxox.— 
Miss Doris Grunell, B.A.. D.Litt (Paris), 
has been appointed Assistant Lecturer in 
French. 

% % % 

Oambridox Unitxbsity.— The Charles 
Oldham Shakespeare Scholarship has been 
awarded to Thomas Smith Sterling, B.A., 
Downing Oollege. 

Durham Univxbsity. Armsteono 
OoLLEOK, Nrwcabtls.— Mr. Allen Mawer, 
M.A. (Cantab.), B.A. (Lond.), Fellow of 
Gonvllle and Caius Ck>llege, Cambridge, 
and Lecturer in English in the University 
of Sheffield, has been appointed Professor 
of English Language and Literature. 

Ik % % 

Durham Univeesitt, Armstrong 
College, Newcastle. — An Entrance 
Exhibition in Literature has been awarded 
to Miss Daisy Bowie. 

% % % 

London University, Kino's College. 
— A complete series of evening classes in 
English has been organized. It covers 
the whole ground for Pass and Honours 
students in the School of English Lan- 
guage and Literature, and for the M.A. 
course. There are also evening lectures 
of a more popular character. Professor 
Gollancz directs the new departure, and 
we wish him much success. The London 
County Council has decided to make to 
the Senate an annual grant of £500 for 
these classes. 

% :k % 
The Eev. C. H. Rowland, B.A. (Toronto), 
Modem Language Master at Listowel 



High School, has been appointed Modem 
Language Master at Upper Canada College* 
Toronta 

1^ 1^ 1^ 

Mr. T. Dbmant, a member of our 
Association, gave a lecture on French, 
English and (German speech sounds to the 
Literary and Philosophical Society, New- 
oastle-npon-TTue. on October 80. It is 
believed that this is the first public lecture 
on phonetics delivered in the district, and 
it is gratifying to leam that there was a 
large and enthusiastic audience. 

3(^ 3(^ 3(^ 

Teachers who use phonetics may be 
interested to know that they can generally 
obtain a few dozen small round mirrors 
by applying to Bovril limited, who issne 
them as advertisements. * 

% Ik Ik 

A correspondent sends ub the following 
note: 

It was my good fortune, a few months 
ago, to succeed as teacher to aset of about 
twelve big boys. 

Their readers [sief] were the time- 
honoured JRoi des MarUagnes and le Bour- 
geois OerUilhomme. They had read about 
eighty pages of the one and nearly two 
acts of the other. 

It soon became clear to me that they 
did not possess what they had read, and 
I naturally asked h4no they had been 
reading. The reading, as far as the boys 
were concerned, had been nil. They had 
neither read ten words nor heard ten 
words read in French. 

Their time had been spent writing — and 
paying great attention to the oalligra^diic 
portion of their production — lg«git«> 
versions of the two books. These veniona 
being given to them under the form of 
dictation by their French master. 

The above-mentioned man called him- 
self a Modem Language speoialiit, with 
eight or more years' experience as snooess- 
ful teacher, and one who oould refer to 
having never had a failure among the 
yearly sets of boys he sent in for the 
Locals, Matriculation, etc 



MODERN LANbU AGE 
TEACHING 

THE OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN 
LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 

EDITED BY WALTER RIPPMANN 

WITH THB ASSISTANCE OP 

R. H. ALLPRESS, F. B. KIRKMAN, MISS PURDIE, AND 
A. A. SOMERVILLE 



VOLUME IV. No. 8 



DECEMBER, 1908 



ON SIMPLIFIED SPELLING. 



[The spellings adopted in the following 
article are deaignd merely to accustom 
the reader to a certain mesure of change. 
They consist, for the most part, in the 
dropping of manifestly saperfluoos 
letters. It is folly recognized that 
simplification, to be of any substantial 
value, must go much further than this. 
But, lest confusion be worse confounded, 
more fundamental reforms must be 
introduced with great caution, and 
after careful study of the complex 
problems involvd. It is one of the 
objects of the S.S.S. to further this 
study. In the meantime, it endevors 
in its publications to educate at once 
the seeing eye and the thinking mind.] 

Tho the recently-establisht Simpli- 
fied Spelling Society has, od the 
whole, been receivd by the Press 
with unexpected openness of mind, 
it has to encounter many erroneous 
preconceptions, both among certain 
newspaper writers, and among the 
general public Perhaps the com- 
monest of these is that the Society 
is a gang of conspirators leagd to 



lay irreverent hands upon our noble 
and beautiful language, and to create 
a violent breach in its historical and 
literary continuity. Some opponents 
of the movement seem to regard 
themselves as a devoted band of 
purists intrepidly defending the 
integrity of the language against a 
horde of ruthless vandals. One 
of this gallant company writes (in a 
London periodical) that ' t^ie Simpli- 
fied (Spellers) shal stretch their racks 
and heat their pincers * in vain, for 
they shal never hav their way. Of 
cours this is an extreme case which 
may be charitably regarded as an 
ebullition of humor; but it is 
typical in spirit if not in form. 

We shal not paus to comment 
on the curious fallacy of believing 
that the beauty of the English 
language (or of any other language, 
for that matter) resides in, or is 
intimately connected with, the 
symbols in which it is represented 
16 



.228 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



to the eye. The true appeal of 
language is to the (outward or 
inward) ear ; and a rational system 
of spelling woud — among all its 
other advantages — tend to check 
vulgar slovenliness of pronunciation. 
This, however, is a remote and 
subsidiary — perhaps an arguable — 
point. The primary points on 
which we woud at present insist 
are, first, that no instant and 
revolutionary change is contem- 
plated by the S.S.S. ; secondly, 
that it is a wholly mistaken purism, 
or purism falsely so calld, which 
holds itself bound to rise up in 
defens of the haphazard conventions 
of our modem spelling. 

Let it be clearly understood, then, 
in the first place, that the members 
of the S.S.S. are not (if the jingle 
may be pardond) fonetic fanatics. 
It is one thing gradually to modify 
our spelling so as to bring it more 
into harmony with reason, and a 
totally different thing to adopt an 
extensiv system of new symbols, 
capable of registering every minu- 
test shade and variation of sound. 
How near we may eventually 
approach to strictly * fonetic ' spell- 
ing is a matter which time alone 
can decide — and ' time ' in this case 
means not only decades but cen- 
turies. Meanwhile, 'fonetic' spell- 
ing, as above defined, is neither 
within the sfere of practical 
politics, nor included among the 
aims of the S.S.S. As its name 
imports, it works for progressiv 
simplification, not for systematic 
reconstruction. Some of its mem- 
bers may hold more radical 



views than others, and may desire 
more sweeping amendmentB. Some 
— ^but these are certainly a 
minority — ^may even believ that 
the nearest possible approach to 
fonetic accuracy is the ideal to 
be ultimately aimd at. But no 
one desires or dreams of any sudden 
and revolutionary change. Our 
opponents, then, may be assured 
that when, by way of argument, 
they print passages in some ex- 
travagant and arbitrary spelling 
which they are pleasd to consider 
'fonetik,' they are simply beating 
the air. They are attributing to 
the S.S.S. views and purposes of 
which, both individually or collec- 
tivly, it is quite innocent. 

Even the most ardent believer in 
the esthetic beauty of the conven- 
tional spelling must admit that it 
is not absolute, but dependent upon 
habit and association. If, then, 
amendments are introduced so 
gradually as to involv no rude 
overthrow of habit and association, 
the present generation wil suffer 
no intolerable shock to its sensi- 
bilities, while numberless future 
generations wil suffer nothing at 
all, but wil, on the contrary, be 
spared an immens amount of un- 
necessary labor. We do not ask 
our opponents to sacrifice, in their 
own practis, a single one of the 
superfluities and irrationalities they 
love. They may, if they like, spel 
governor gau/vemourt and music 
musique^ — for governor and music 
are simplifications. All we ask of 
them is not activly to fight against 
the use of simplifications by those 



ON SIMPLIFIED SPELLING 



229 



who choose to adopt them, whether 
in manuscript or print ; or, if they 
must argue against simplification, at 
least to acquaint themselvs with 
the real arguments and proposals 
of those who are working for 
reform. 

Secondly, let us take the case of 
the so-calld purists who beliey 
that our conventional spelling con- 
tains some tresure of historic in- 
struction which woud be lost to 
the world wer it amended. It 
ought to giv these gentlemen some 
pans to note that not a single 
protest student of the history of 
language attaches the smallest im- 
portans to this argument. The 
appeal to living authorities, how- 
ever, may be met by a referens to 
Archbishop Trench and Dean 
Alford, who certainly gave some 
countenans to the historical or 
etymological fallacy. Let us, then, 
very briefly look into its merits. 

We may thank Archbishop 
Trench for giving the antidote 
along with the bane — that is to 
say, for stating very admirably the 
argument he profest to controvert 
Nothing could be better than the 
sentens italicized in the following 
passage (English Pa^ and Present, 
9th edition, p. 316) : 

* It is urged, indeed, as an answer to 
this, that the scholar does not need these 
indications to help him to the pedigree of 
the words with which he deals, that the 
ignorant is not helped by them ; that the 
one knows without, and the othtr dots not 
know with them; so that in either case 
they are profitable for nothing. Let it«be 
freely granted that this in both these 
oises is true: but between these two 



extremes there is a multitude of persons 
neither aocomplished scholars on one side, 
nor yet wholly without the knowledge of 
all languages save their own on the other, 
and I cannot doubt that it is of great value 
that these should have all helps enabling 
them to recognize the words which they 
are using, whence they came, to what 
words in other languages they are nearly 
related, and what is their properest and 
strictest meaning.' 

To this there is a very plain 
answer — ^namely, that the Arch- 
bishop is preferring a very small 
gain, affecting a very limited class 
of people, to an enormous gain, 
affecting all the coming generations 
of English-speakers throuout the 
world. We may admit that nothing 
is to be had for nothing, and that 
against the greatest advantage there 
is always some disadvantage to be 
set off. But in this case the draw- 
back is almost infinitesimal com- 
pared with the gain. There are 
no dout some thousands, perhaps 
even tens of thousands, of educated 
people who occasionally take some 
plesure in having their etymological 
memories jogd by a superfluous 
letter or a cumbrous collocation of 
letters. But this plesure, rate it 
at the highest, is a very trivial and 
inessential affair; can it be for a 
moment held to be worth buying 
at the cost of from one to two 
years of unnecessary toil inflicted 
on all the learners of English, nativ- 
born or forein, during all the cen- 
turies to come? Weighed in the 
balanses of reason, what is the 
occasional plesure of a few thou- 
sands against the inevitable and 

painful toil of innumerable millions? 
16-2 



230 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



Bemember that we hav not the 
interests of one generation or two 
to consider, but those of an illimit- 
able multitude. It is hard to see 
how anyone who possesses an 
imagination, and is not possest by 
a blind spirit of egoistic pedantry, 
can rely for a moment on the 
etymological pretext. 

Even if simplified spelling woud 
obscure the etymology of every 
word in the language, its manifold 
advantages woud still enormously 
outweigh this disadvantage. But, 
as a matter of fact, it is only in 
a very small percentage of words 
that any sort of obscuration woud 
take place. Look at the last two 
sentences we hav written : they 
contain forty-seven words, chosen 
without any thought of their 
individual bearing on this argument. 
Apply to these forty-seven words 
any rational system of simplifica- 
tion : in how many of them do we 
find the etymology in the slightest 
degree disguised? In precisely 
one : to drop the I from uoould woud 
no doubt render it a little less easy 
to remember its relation to will. 
It will scarcely be pretended that 
if we substituted % for the first y 
in 'etymology,' any one who had 
ever known its derivation woud 
therefor find greater difficulty in 
remembering it. Let the reader, 
sincerely and faithfully, apply the 
suggested test to this page, or to 
any number of pages. Let him 
note (a) in how many words the 
spelling really givs the educated 
reader (as distinct from the special 
student) any etjrmological informa- 



tion worth having ; and (b) in what 
percentage of these words that 
information woud be obscured by 
any rational simplification of their 
spelling. He wil find the percent- 
age very small indeed; and if he 
wil then ask himself how often, as 
a matter of fact, these etymologies 
are really present to his mind, or 
hav any appreciable value for him, 
he wil surely answer (if he be 
capable of intellectual sincerity) 
that the gain to him and his class 
implied in the retention of the 
irrational spellings is as nothing 
compared with the gain that woud 
accrue from their amendment to 
innumerable generations of English- 
speakers, all the world over. 

The insincerity, or at any rate 
the perfunctoriness, of the etymo- 
logical argument becomes apparent 
when we find that those who rely 
on it are not only opposed to the 
simplification of those words which 
afford a true index to derivation, 
but are equally hostile to any 
change in the numerous words 
which either point to a &Jse deriva- 
tion, or represent a false spelling of 
the original from which they are 
derived. So long as they can stick 
to a superfluous letter, in fact, they 
care very little whether the de- 
rivation it suggests be right or 
wrong. 

Boswell reproacht Johnson for 
dropping the * u ' in * authour,' but 
highly commended his effort to 
'stop that curtailing innovation by 
which we see criHc, publiOf etc., 
frequently written insted of criHek^ 
ptiblick, etc.' Johnson's defens of 



ON SIMPLIFIED SPELLING 



231 



this form was that in English we 
'shoud always hav the Saxon k 
added to the c' Had he known 
that in Anglo-Saxon 'quick' was 
spelt cwic, ' stock ' stoc, and ' thick ' 
thky he woud scarcely hav made so 
amazing an assertion. 

To come to grips with the purists, 
however, let us look at a few of the 
words in which the modem spelling 
(often distinctly worse than that of 
two or three centuries ago) is 
grossly misleading as to deriva- 
tion. 

In the word aghasi the h is per- 
fectly gratuitous and has less than 
no etymological value. The Middle 
English form is gasien^ to terrify. 
Agasty the correct form, occurs in 
Wyclif 's Bible, in Chaucer (twice at 
least) and in Milton. Shakespeare 
has 'gasted' for frightend. Both 
in this word and in the cognate 
ghost the h was due to Caxton, who 
f oUowd a Dutch fashion (afterwards 
abandond) of writing gh for the 
hard g before e and i. Hence, too, 
the h in ghirhin^ which, both accord- 
ing to etjnnology and common sens, 
ought to be spelt gurUn, In several 
other words formerly spelt with 
initial g\ the h has long been 
simplified away. 

In scentf scythe, scissors and scion 
the e is as intrusiv and misleading 
as it used to be in the now 
simplified scite and sdtuate. Sent, 
from the Latin seniire, is correctly 
spelt in the First Folio ' Hamlet ' : 
' I sent the mornings ayre.' Our 
etymological enthusiasts might as 
well write scense as scent. Scythe is 
spelt siihe in ' Piers Plowman,' sylhe 



in the First Folio Shakespeare. 
There is absolutely no etymological 
justification for the c in scissors, 
which has crept in owing to a false 
belief that the word was derived 
from the Latin sdndere. In scion 
there is more excuse for the c, as it 
is collaterally related to the French 
scier; but it came into the language 
in the form of sion, don, cyun, 
or den. 

Another curious instans of an 
intrusiv c may be found in the 
word nickname. The c merely servs 
to obscure the fact that the word 
was originally ek&^Mmie, a name 
added or tagged on. Persons who 
sincerely wish to hav their etjrmo- 
logical memories jogd by their 
spelling ought certainly to drop the 
delusiv c 

The b in debt and doubt suggests, 
not exactly a false etymology, but 
a false history. The Middle English 
forms were detie and dout. Better 
occurs in Coverdale, Latimer, 
Shakespeare, and the English Bible 
(1611), dettor in Milton ; dout occurs 
in Latimer, Spenser, etc. The 
was gratuitously inserted under the 
mistaken impression that the words 
came direct from the Latin. 

Bedoubt is an example of a some- 
what similar perversion. It is 
really derived throu the French 
from the Italian ridotto, explaind by 
Florio as ' a withdrawing pUce.' 
This again is a substantiv use of 
the past-participle ridotto which 
Florio translates as 'reduced . . . 
brought back safe and sound 
againe.' The word was originally 
ridutto, past participle of ridurre, to 



232 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



bring or lead back« The spelling 
redoubt ineyitably Buggeats the 
French redaubter, to dred; as if & 
redoubt wer a place specially set 
apart for cowards ! 

The false etjrmologies suggested 
by island^ rhyme^ and ioverei^ are 
too wel known to require comment. 
It is perhaps less commonly known 
that the g in foreign is entirely 
meaningless. In Chaucer's transla- 
tion of Boethius, the word is 
spelt foreine or foreyne. It comes 
throu the Old French forain from 
foraneuSf applied to a canon who is 
not in residens or to a travelling 
pedlar. The insertion of the g was 
a pure blunder. 

Ddight^ again, is a meaningless 
spelling, possibly on the analogy of 
%«, bright, plight, etc. The Middle 
English forms were delU (subst.) 
and deliten (verb). In Old French 
the word was delU or ddeit. 

So, too, in sprightly, the gh has 
not the faintest etymological justi- 
ficatioa The Middle English forms 
are sprit, sprite, or spryte, French 
esprit. The gh has crept in on 
a false analogy, and 'jogs the 
memory ' only to suggest some- 
thing quite erroneous. 

The list of spellings which hav 
no historical or etymological justi- 
fication, and which suggest either 
something untrue or nothing at all, 
might be almost indefinitly ex- 
tended To it ought to be added 
the list of words of which the cur- 
rent spelling is founded on a mis- 
spelling of the Latin or Greek 
original. What do our purists say 
to such enormities as syren for siren 



and tyro for tiro, or style for stile f 
We hav alredy — all of us who care 
about orthografy— corrected in our 
Latin texts the spelling of sylva to 
sSufa (or sUua), of lachryma to 
lacrima, and lympha to limpha ; but 
in English lachrymal and lymph stil 
linger on. Why shoud we not only 
tolerate but defend, in our own 
language, the ' howlers ' — there is 
no other word for them — ^which as 
scholars we hav ahredy discarded in 
our editions of the Latin classics 1 

We shal believ in the sincerity of 
those who take their stand upon the 
historico - etymological argument, 
when we find them agitating for a 
revision of spelling from that point 
of view — for the ejection of letters 
which can remind them only of the 
blunders of ded pedants and 
printers. As a matter of fact, 
they are quite as much opposed 
to changes which illumin etymology 
as to those which obscure it. Not, 
of cours, that we hold them to be 
wilfully and consciously insincere. 
They are only too lazy, too wedded 
to convention and hab}t, to giv 
serious thought to the matter. 
They seize upon a facile frase, and 
use it without examination, as a 
pretext for their instinctiv con- 
servatism. All we ask is that they 
shoud really giv some emest 
thought to the question, and es- 
pecially that they shoud bring into 
play their sens of proportion. We 
admit — for it woud be folly to 
deny — that no great change can 
possibly be effected without some 
slight discomfort to those ac- 
customd to the old order of things, 



MODERN LANGUAGE METHODS IN INDIA 



233 



and perhaps even a certain mesure 
of actual I088. But can anyone, 
weighing this temporary discomfort 
and trivial loss against the enor- 
mous gain to all future generations 
of English-speaking people, declare 
on his honor and consciens that the 



balans deflects on the conservativ 
side? It is like weighing a split- 
pea against a cannon-ball. 

WiLUAM Archer. 

Walter W. Skeat. 

Seeretariei of the Simplified SpeUing 
Society* 



MODERN LANGUAGE METHODS IN INDIA. 



The extremely interestiiig and yaluable 
papers which have been oontributed to 
MoDXBN Lamgxtaox Txaching on the 
subject of the direct method have all, I 
think, been the work of teachers and 
schoolmasters. It has occurred to me 
that it might be interesting to some of 
them to read the experiences of a learner 
of living languages. 

In 1875 I went to India as a member 
of the Bengal Civil Service. My sole 
linguistic equipment was an elementaiy 
knowledge of Hindustani, which I had 
learned with the aid of a coach and the 
usual apparatus of grammar, dictionary, 
and text-books. After two years of train- 
ing I could read an easy book — ^with 
difficulty. I could do a translation into 
Urdu, which was only Urdu (Urdu is the 
Mohammedan form of Hindustani), inas- 
much as the words were Hindustani 
words. In short, I could achieve a more 
or less literal translation. I could not 
talk Hindustani. I did not understand 
Hindustani when I heard it spoken. My 
Hindustani bore a sad resemblance to the 
French which I took away from my public 
school. It might possibly have become 
the basis of real Hindi scholarship ; but, 
as it happened, I was sent to a part of 
Bengal where the Hindustani language 
was rarely, if ever, used. After some six 
months of administrative training I was 
placed in sole charge of a 'subdivision,' 
with a population of some half a million 
of Bengali souls. I heard nothing but 
Bengali spoken from morning to night; 
all my work was done in Bengali In 



trying cases, I had to make a rough 
translation into my English record of 
the depositions of hundreds of Bengali 
witnesses. I was very busy— much too 
busy to find time for acquiring a literary 
knowledge of the language. I never 
looked at a grammar or a dictionary, and 
if I learned the written character, it was 
only in order that I might read the 
innumerable petitions that were presented 
to me on all manner of subjects. I 
learned the language entirely by the ear, 
and, long before I could read or spell, I 
had acquired a copious vocabulary and a 
sense of the idioms and accentuation of 
the hmguage. It was after I could under- 
stand what was said to me, and could 
make myself understood, that I began 
reading. I still remember the acute 
pleasure I felt in recognizing in print the 
words with which my ear was already 
familiar. ' That,* I said to myself, 'is 
how such and such a word is written, is 
it V Reading, instead of being a toil, was 
a delight. Bengali being one of the 
languages derived frt)m Sanscrit which 
possess a remarkably complete phonetic 
alphabet, I of course found that in many 
oases my English ear had misled me. I 
had not been able, for instance, to dis- 
tinguish the dental from the palatal T, 
D, S, and N. I strove to amend my ways, 
and was rewarded by an improvement, 
not only in my pronunciation, but in my 
hearing. I learned to look out for slight 

* The Office of the Society is at 44, 
Great Russell Street, W.C. 



234 



MODEBN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



differences of tone and pronnncUtion, 
which no native teacher would have 
thought it neceaaary to indicate. I dare 
not claim that the final retult waa much 
to boast of, but I certainly made a more 
rapid and infinitely pleasanter progress 
than I did at school with Latin, Greek, or 
French. 

So far, my experiences were roughly 
those of any Anglo- Indian who tackles 
the vernaculars, and have nothing ex- 
ceptional about them. But at a much 
later stage of my Indian career it was my 
good fortune to come into contact with 
the semi-savage races on the North- 
Eastem frontier. Most of the Indian 
languages, properly so called, are of the 
Indo-European family. Their construction 
and grammar — nay, the roots of their 
vocabulary — are those of our own European 
languages. The numerals and system of 
counting are the same. Anyone can see 
that pita is 'father,' nUUd is 'mother,' 
bhrHtd is * brother,' and so on. Negation 
is expressed, as in all Indo-European 
languages, by nasal sounds. But in Assam 
I came into touch for the first time with 
Indo-Ohinese languages of the agglutina- 
tive type, tongues of which the linguistic 
machinery and syntactical devices were 
wholly unfamiliar to me. Moreover, they 
possessed no written character, and there 
were, of course, no grammars or diction- 
aries. There were no teachers, in the 
sense that none of my semi-savage friends 
—excellent fellows in every respect — had 
any experience of teaching or, indeed, any 
desire to teach. Yet it was necessary to 
learn their language if I was to be of any 
use to them. 

I began by taking down lists of words— 
the names of familiar objects. The nouns 
were easy enough, and I soon procured a 
longish list of the names of things. I 
even picked up a few verbs, but adjectives 
presented a curious difficulty. I got hold 
of a native who understood the (Indo- 
European) Assamese language as well as 
his native tongue, and to him I applied 
for adjectives. He puzzled me by supply- 
ing me with nothing but Assamese 



a4J6ctivee 1 At first I imagined that his 
primitive, half-savage mind was incapable 
of translating, and that he simply gave 
me back the Assamese words I suggested. 
But I did him an iigustioe. The fut was 
that in his language there were, with one 
or two recent exceptions due to borrowing, 
no aci^eetives. That was where the lin- 
guistic device known as 'agglutination' 
came in. The modification of sense which 
we produce by using separate adjectives 
and adverbs was brought about by insert- 
ing little particles between the verbal root 
and the inflexional termination. Among 
these was a negative partide. For in- 
stance, thdng-baif ' went ' ; thdng-d-haif 
* did not go ' ; thdng-d-Uu-bai, * did not 
pretend to go ' ; thang-S-MU-bait ' did not 
go from a distance.' And all these agglu- 
tinated particles, A, thJ, htii, etc, had no 
separate existence whatever, and to the 
semi-savage mind could not be oonoeived 
of as existing apart from the verbs whose 
sense they modified. It was hopeless to 
ask for a list of them, much less to 
demand their meaning. They had no 
meaning that could be put into words. 
They were modifiers of meaning, if the 
expression may be used. 

Anyhow, I found that the method of 
taking down lists of words (a process still 
followed by linguists and ethnologists in 
those parts, who even publish such lists ; 
I have done it myself 1) got me no ' for- 
rarder.' I came to no comprehension of 
the essential part of the language, the 
logical and syntactical habits which made 
it so interesting a study, and so delight- 
fully different from our own 'subject, 
predicate,' etc., languages. 

At this point I might have stopped, as 
in fact I have been foroed to stop in learn- 
ing other aboriginal languages. But in 
the case of the particular language of 
which I am writing, I had the good 
fortune to meet a delightful being (let me 
record his name: it was Samson !) who was 
a bom story-teller. He had a great fund 
of primitive yams, some of them wild- 
beast fables of the type familiar to students 
of Indian literature, and no doubt bor- 



MODERN LANGUAGE METHODS IN INDIA 



235 



rowed from Hindu neighboars, but others 
excellent savage yams with a rich vein of 
jovial boyish humour in them. I took 
Samson about with me in camp, and got 
him to tell me his stories over and over 
again. He told them to me as an English 
mother tells nursery tales to her babes, 
and I listened to them as an English babe 
listens, partly for tlie story, partly for the 
sound. Every parent knows how children 
do not like stories to be too simple, and 
detest the one-syllable style of story. 
Well, I found that I especially enjoyed 
and looked out for the polysyllabic 
agglutinative verb, sometimes fourteen or 
fifteen syllables long. Not once did I 
have a single word translated to me, nor 
did I try to translate. I hope I may be 
permitted to say that after only six 
months of this experience— six months in 
which I was, of course, occupied with the 
ordinary cares of administration— I passed 
an oral examination in the language and 
received the Government reward. 

Now, what makes this story worth 
telling is that I am not 'good at lan- 
guages,' as the phrase goes. I am no 
linguist, and, as I have tried to explain, 
if I have learned one or two Indian and 
Indo-Ohinese languages, it was because, 
like most of my brother officers, I have 
had to learn them in the way of ad- 
ministrative business. My sole excuse 
for writing these few lines is the hope 
that I may supply a practical example of 
what can be done by a rigid use of the 
direct method. By far the best teacher I 
have ever had was a semi-savage Bodo, 
and his teaching consisted simply in 
telling me primitive yams. It is nearly 
twenty years since I heard them, and 
they are still fresh in a not very retentive 
memory. I have Englished them to my 
own children, and have made them laugh 
at the aboriginal humour of my friend 
Samson. They are stories of the type 
which the nursery asks for again and 
again. To me Uiey are valuable as a 
reminder of the pleasantest six months of 
my life. 



Of course I must not be understood to 
suppose that a method which was con- 
spicuously, and even startlingly, successful 
in the case of a simple savage dialect con- 
taining few abstract terms and possessing 
no literature is suitable for the teaching 
of a great literary language. But readers 
of MoDEKN Lakoxtaoi Teaohikg know 
even better than I do that 'oe n'est que le 
premier pas qui coute,' and, as a beginning, 
the fairy-tale method, as a variety of the 
direct method, might be worth trying. 
No translation ; the pupil to be allowed 
to puzzle out the meaning for himself, as 
the child in the nursery puzzles out the 
sense of what mother and nurse say to 
him. 

I may be allowed to say, in conclusion, 
that out of my friend Samson's stories I 
compiled for Dr. G. A. Grierson's great 
Linguistic Survey of India an account of 
the Bodo agglutinative verb and a tolerably 
complete list of the little particles which 
are * glued ' into Bodo vocables by way of 
modifying their meaning. No doubt my 
attempt has some ' scientific ' interest, if 
only for purposes of comparative philology. 
But I am heartily glad that nothing of the 
sort existed when I began learning the 
language. I have been compelled to give 
to each particle a ' meaning ' in the form 
of an English ad^eotive or adverb. But 
these little devices are not acljectives or 
adverbs ; they form part of the verb with 
which they are incorporate, and to anyone 
who feels the genius of the language to 
which they belong there is something 
cmel and unseemly in displaying them 
apart from their proper surroundings. 

The apologies of an amateur are due to 
any professional linguists who may read 
these erode reminiscences. I have striven 
to put down as accurately and briefly as 
possible the actual experiences of an 
unaided student who started with no 
theories whatever, and, indeed, at a time 
when the direct method was, I imagine, 
not yet come to its birth. 

J. D. Anderson. 
Cambridge, 1907. 



236 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



METHODS OP EXTENDING THE MODERN LANGUAGE 
LEARNER'S VOCABULARY.* 



Before I come to close quarters 
with the subject about which I 
desire to speak, it will be well to 
dear the ground by considering 
what is the primary object of 
Modem Language teaching. 

It is not to turn out expert 
translators. Let us hope that a very 
small number of the children who 
come under our care will have to 
earn their living by translating; 
few kinds of literary work are as 
badly paid as this. Very few will 
be called upon to speak a foreign 
language to any considerable extent. 
We are all by this time agreed that 
conversation is a valuable means to 
our end, but we do not wish to turn 
out mere talkers. Only a small 
proportion will be scholars in the 
academic sense. More will turn to 
commerce, but the special training 
required for this purpose is, gene- 
rally speaking, outside the scope of 
the secondary school. 

The primary object is to give our 
pupils the power of fluent and in- 
telligent reading; if they do not 
take this with them from school, it 
seems to me that our work has been, 
in part at least, wasted. If we 
have secured this power for them, 
if we have imparted a taste for 
reading, so that they will of them- 
selves turn to French and German 
books, it will stand them in good 

* A lecture delivered at Leeds on 
May 9, in oonnezion with the Travelling 
Exhibition, is here given in a revised 
form. 



Stead right through their life, even 
if it be not directly useful for the 
career they have chosen. It will 
enable them to pass some of their 
leisure hours well — ^in itself no 
mean object; but apart from that, 
intelligent reading will mean broader 
sjrmpathies, wider interests^ more 
just ways of regarding the countries 
which are near to us, and yet often 
so far! It is not uncommon to 
find reform teachers misrepresented 
as to the importance they attach to 
reading; I believe all serious re- 
formers agree with me in holding 
fluent and intelligent reading to be 
the main object of our work. 

How must we equip our pupils 
in order that they may attain this 
object? It necessitates a know- 
ledge of words and phrases, of 
foreign life and thought, but it 
does nojt necessitate the power of 
translation. It should not be for- 
gotten that there are two kinds of 
translation, although (it is true) 
there is no hard-and-fast line 
separating them. Mechanical trans- 
lation — the substitution of words 
provided by dictionary or vocabu- 
lary for those in a given text — is 
one thing. I believe it to have 
very slight value indeed, but I am 
not at present concerned with show- 
ing its futility. Quite another thing 
is the translating of one who 
knows two languages thoroughly; 
for him the dictionary is rarely of 



THE MODERN LANGUAGE LEAENER'S VOCABULARY 237 



any value. His mind grasps the 
idea conveyed by the foreign words, 
and he pours the fused metal into 
the mould of his own language. 
Such translation may be a work of 
art that we all admire. Take any 
fine passage — I am speaking to 
those who, like me, are not past 
masters of translation — and trans- 
late it into what seems adequate 
language. Look at your rendering 
again in a fortnight : probably you 
will realize how far it falls short of 
what you would call an ideal trans- 
lation. Luther's famous letter of 
the year 1530 should be in the 
mind of all who translate. He and 
his helpers would search for three 
or four weeks for the true equiva- 
lent of a single word in the Bible.'*' 
Translation that is really an art is 
very slow work — much slower than 
intelligent reading may be, fortu- 
nately. 

In order to read intelligently we 
must get at the full meaning of 
words, and that is often a very 
difficult matter. Take any people 
with whom you come into contact, 
and ascertain the meaning they 
attach to any particular word (I 
refer to the really deep words about 

* Ich habe mich deasen gefliBsen im 
Dolmetachen, daas icb rein und klar 
dentsch geben mochte. Und ist nns wol 
oft beg^et dass wir vierzehn Tage, drey, 
vier Wochen haben ein einiges Wort 
gesncht und gefragt, habens dennooh 
zuweilen nicht funden. Im Hiob arbei- 
teten wir alao, dass wir in vior Tagen 
zuweilen kaum drey Zeilen konnten 
fertigen. . . . 

Ach es ist Dolmetschen ja nicht eines 
jeglichen Knnst ; es gehoret dazu ein 
recht fromm, treo, fleissig, ftirchtsam, 
christlich, gelehrtee, erfahren, geiibt Herz. 

From Lnther's Sendbrief vom Del" 
fMtscKen (iz., z., zz.). 



which men struggle and fight, and 
for which they sacrifice themselves), 
and you will find that to each one 
such a word has a different meaning. 
Nothing brings out the variable 
content of words more clearly than 
the observation of children. Mr. 
Chamberlain, in vol. zi. of the 
Pedagogic Seminary, gives his little 
girl's answers to the question 
'What is . . . forf when she was 
thirty-three months old. The follow- 
ing are examples : 

Cflock: 'Why, it's to wind it np.' 
Church : * Why, the people go in an' ting 
[sing] an' ting an' ting.' Byea: 'They 
are to look at pictores.' Garden : ' It's a 
darden to put radishes on.' WaU-papdr: 
'It's to not trats [scratch] it.' BoUle$: 
'They are to put in ginger-ale.' 

In an article on 'How Words 
get their Meaning,' in the same 
volume of the Pedagogic Seminary , 
Mr. Chambers quotes the results 
of an interesting inquiry into the 
meaning attached by boys and girls 
of various ages to certain selected 
words. From these I choose : 

Oirl of Eight : * A monk is a person who 
live by himselves npon high mountains, 
and had large dogs that go out and find 
travellers in the snow.' Bay of Nine : * A 
monk is a little animal that look like a 
squiril.' Oirl of Fourteen : * A monk is 
a man who lives secluded from the rest of 
the world and devotes his life to Christian 
work.' Boy qf Eighteen : * A monk is a type 
of the human race that lived in the Dark 
Ages. These monks were very learned, 
and from them much of our learning 
to-day has been handed down.' 

These definitions seem to me 
singularly interesting as exemplify- 
ing the difference in our attitude 



238 



MODEEN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



towards words; they show vividly 
how gradually the child's knowledge 
of words grows. The fact that there 
is an increase in the number of 
words is commonly recognized ; it 
is much harder for the teacher con- 
stantly to make allowance for the 
fact that a word he uses has often a 
far more restricted meaning for his 
pupils than he attaches to it himself. 
Many words keep growing in con- 
tent and forming fresh associations; 
sometimes a single experience will 
have a profoundly modifying effect 
on a word. It is the continual re- 
appearance of words in varying 
contexts, in reading far more than 
in speech, that gives them fulness 
of meaning. We may say that the 
more a man has read intelligently, 
the richer his vocabulary is — richer, 
not merely more extensive. It is 
by constant repetition in different 
combinations that words gradually 
assume something like their true 
meaning for the child. As Professor 
O'Shea says in his interesting book 
on Linguistic DevdopmerU and Educa- 
tian: 

* Much reading, even if the meaning of 
every word is not entirely clear at the 
outset, but if the sense as a whole is 
rightly apprehended, leads in the end to 
the most effective mastery of meaning- 
ideas for visual word -ideas * (p. 221). 

It is unnecessary to point out 
how strongly these considerations 
support the view that a foreign 
language should not be learnt too 
early. We must leave the child 
time to get clear ideas in his 
mother-tongue. 



The child of nine or ten may 
safely begin a foreign language. 
Hitherto he has looked on the world 
with English eyes, clothed his 
thoughts in English garb. We 
must be careful how we present 
the new language. 

I have stated my views repeatedly 
as to the importance of selecting 
the beginner's foreign vocabuUry 
with care. I am becoming more 
and more certain that it is a mis- 
take to introduce things and ideas 
peculiar to the foreign nation at too 
early a stage. There are many 
words expressing common objects 
and ordinary actions and emotions 
which must be learnt, and are best 
learnt at the very outset. The 
content of such a word is much the 
same in all languages: two, deux 
and ewei ; yellow, jaune and gelb ; 
father, phre and Vaier ; sleep, dormir 
hxid^sMafen. These are, decreasingly 
in the order given, equivalent ; they 
require no complicated explanation, 
no translation. By employing words 
which, though extremely useful, 
offer no real difficulties of meaning, 
we are able to devote all the more 
attention to the pronunciation, to 
the spelling, and to elementary 
grammar. It is a foolish ambition 
that defeats its own end to teach 
many words in the first year of 
instruction. Equally unwise is it 
to start two foreign languages at 
the same time. 

In what has conveniently been 
called the intermediate stage, the 
pupils have reached a point at which 
the pronunciation and elementary 



THE MODERN LANGUAGE LEARNER'S VOCABULARY 239 



grammar no longer require so much 
attention, and it now becomes our 
duty above all things to extend 
their vocabulary. 

There are two ways in which we 
can strengthen and build up the 
vocabulary — association and repeti- 
tion. The old-fashioned book selects 
the vocabulary almost entirely from 
the grammatical point of view : for 
instance, words forming their plural 
in the same way are lumped together, 
without regard to their meaning. 
Sometimes an attempt is made to 
make up a kind of narrative intro- 
ducing, say, all prepositions taking 
the same case; and the result, if 
not positively ludicrous, is generally 
quite unnatural In teaching words 
we must make sure in the first place 
that they are worth teaching ; then 
we must so teach them that they 
become members of as many groups 
as possible. They will enter the 
group of words with similar gram- 
matical form and function; they 
will join a group of etymologically 
connected words; and they will 
become members of one or more 
groups kindred or contrasted in 
meaning. The greater the number 
of associations we succeed in estab- 
lishing, the more sure we may be 
that the word will be remembered. 

[In this connexion I may be 
allowed to refer to a mistake some- 
times made by reform teachers, 
when they rely too much on the 
ear and the organs of speech, and 
do not give their pupils an early 
opportunity of writing the* new 
word and seeing it written and 
printed. The stress laid on the 



spoken language must not be per- 
mitted to make us neglect the 
activities of the eye and hand.] 

The habit of associating kindred 
words is valuable; the habit of 
gathering the meaning of a word 
from its context is one that must 
be sedulously cultivated. I will 
call it 'alertness of association,' 
because 'guessing' might lead to 
misapprehension of my meaning. 
We want our pupils when they 
meet with a new word in their 
reading to face it in a determined 
fashion, and with the sense of ex- 
hilaration afforded by the exertion 
of our powers in solving a problem. 
We want them to make a reasonable 
conjecture as to the meaning of the 
new word. It goes without saying 
that in the early years of the inter- 
mediate stage our texts should be 
carefully chosen, so that the mean- 
ing of the great majority of new 
words can be ascertained. Some 
words {e,g,, the names of the less 
familiar trees) cannot be guessed, 
and in such cases the teacher's 
obvious course is to give the English 
equivalent. 

The worst thing is to let the 
pupils use a dictionary or a special 
vocabulary. To look up a word in 
the dictionary or vocabulary is to 
get the meaning with the least 
effort and the least effect. The 
pupil who has been allowed to 
acquire the dictionary habit does 
not stop to see whether he can 
make out the meaning unaided. 
He turns the word up at once, and 
the impression is a slight one, even if 



240 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



he proceeds to write the word down 
with the meaning beside it. Some- 
times there is a little difficulty that 
remains unsolved by the dictionary : 
a phrase occurs which cannot be 
made out by word-for-word trans- 
lating, but requires a little thought 
before the right English equivalent 
is obtained. Many editors do not 
allow the pupil to do even this for 
himself; they supply notes which 
contain renderings ready-made. A 
comparison of such editions and 
those on reform lines throws an 
interesting light on the familiar 
charge that the newer methods are 
designed to make things unduly 
easy for the pupil. 

Often, when I have advised the 
abandoning of dictionaries and 
vocabularies, teachers have asked : 
* How, then, are the pupils to pre- 
pare their workT My answer is 
that, generally speaking, home-work 
should be revision and application 
rather than preparation ; that pre- 
paration vrith a dictionary has grave 
disadvantages; and that there are 
two ways in which a fresh portion 
of the text can be prepared with- 
out a dictionary, both of them 
educationally sound. The first 
method is the one which I should 
recommend for ordinary use : The 
teacher glances through the page 
or pages he is going to set for 
preparation, and underlines such 
words as he knows to be unfamiliar 
to his pupils ; when giving out the 
home-work, he points out these 
words and explains them. The 
other method is probably better 
suited for occasional use, but I 



regard it, nevertheless, as a capital 
exercise : The teacher tells the 
pupils that they are to read through 
certain pages, make out a list of 
all words that are unfamiliar, and 
write against them what they think 
is the meaning. If they are right, 
they receive credit for it; if their 
conjecture is not quite rights but 
the meaning suggested would make 
sense, they are encouraged ; if there 
is anything in the nature of wild 
guessing, so that the meaning sug- 
gested would produce nonsense, they 
are made to see the foolishness of 
it. I believe that a short course 
of preparation on these lines would 
do more to cultivate reasonableness 
in translating than anything else. 

For the advanced student a good 
bilingual dictionary is of value; 
but I would banish it and every- 
thing akin to it from the elementary 
and the intermediate stage. 

The only forms of dictionary 
that appeal to me for the use of 
young pupils are the self-made and 
the single-language kinds, which 
seem to me appropriate to the first 
and second halves of the inter- 
mediate stage respectively. Just 
as I believe the self-made grammar 
of the elementary stage should 
precede the grammar -book, so I 
think that much profit may be 
derived from the self-made word- 
book. In this I should let the 
pupils enter the new words under 
suitable headings, such as 'Measures 
of Time,' ' Colours,' * Verbs of Mo- 
tion,' * Relationship,' * Coins.' The 
natural love of collecting will lead 
the pupils to take pleasure in the 



THE MODERN LANGUAGE LEAENER'S VOCABULARY 241 



growing number of words in each 
section. There is no need to add the 
English equivalents. The meaning 
is to some extent suggested by the 
heading of the page on which a 
word appears ; if necessary^ a suit- 
able sentence containing the word, 
or a reference to a picture, or a 
little sketch of the object, might be 
added. Such a method seems to 
me much more profitable and 
educationally sounder than the un- 
classified lists of words which are 
at present often put down in pre- 
paration note-books. The classified 
word-book will be found useful 
for revision, and will serve also 
for grammatical purposes. Thus 
substantives will always be given 
with the article to show their 
gender : and if the plural is ir- 
regular, that also will be indicated. 

The entries in the word-book are, 
as a rule, made in class, which 
reduces the possibility of error, if 
proper use is made of the black- 
board to show the form of new 
words that are not before the pupils 
in their printed form. Even so it 
will occasionally be necessary for 
the teacher to glance through the 
word-books to eliminate such errors 
as may have slipped in. This in- 
spection is not without its value for 
the teacher, as it helps him to bear 
in mind the extent of his pupils' 
vocabulary. 

In the second half of the inter- 
mediate stage use can be made of 
such a book as Lofouase. It is not 
an ideal book for the purpose, as it 
is written for French readers, and 
often the explanation of the word 



is to an English pupil no less 
obscure than the word itself. Let 
us acknowledge frankly that there 
are words the explanation of which 
in the foreign language is either 
impossible or misleading. That 
does not, of course, justify the 
teacher in suppljring the English 
equivalent for every new word or 
in referring his pupils to a bilingual 
dictionary. 

The chief means of extending the 
vocabulary must be reading, and it 
is here that I am inclined to see 
the weakest point in our Modem 
Language teaching above the 
elementary stage. Our pupils read 
far too little. We are so anxious 
to do things thoroughly that we 
omit to cultivate the power of 
reading. It is no uncommon thing 
to find that a class in the middle of 
a school does not get through more 
than twenty-five or thirty small 
pages in a term. It is true that 
they are read carefully, with plenti- 
ful exercises on the text, and that 
is eminently necessary; but I am 
inclined to think it would be better 
to treat only fifteen or twenty pages 
in this way, and to read sixty or 
eighty pages rapidly. There are 
several advantages attending such 
rapid reading: it gives the pupils, 
an interest in the story, enabling 
them to read it more as they would 
a book in their mother-tongue ; and 
it extends and enriches their 
vocabulary.* In the sixty or eighty 

* It should not be foigotten that impid 
TMden gain the thought more completely 
and effeotively than the slow onea. £z- 



242 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



pages there will be many common 
words and constructions, a know- 
ledge of which is essential, and 
which can only be really mastered 
if they have been met with again 
and again in varied contexts. In 
every class there should be one text 
for intensive reading, suitably 
edited, and a text for extensive 
reading, which need have no 
editorial apparatus at alL 

The small amount of reading 
done is a defect not only in 
the intermediate stage, but in the 
higher forms also. It seems to be 
thought that, in order to prepare 
pupils for such an examination as 
Matriculation, the only safe course 
is to give them collections of ex- 
tracts. These collections generally 
contain a large proportion of diffi^ 
cult words and constructions, with 
no easier matter. No wonder that 
the pupils find such reading tire- 
some and uninteresting. Frag- 
ments of description and truncated 
episodes are not calculated to 
cultivate a love of literature; but 
they also fail in their alleged object. 
They do not properly extend the 
vocabulary, because they do not 
afford sufficient repetition of the 
new words they contain.* A far 



periments have conclusively proved this 
for the mother- ton^e (O'Shea, Linguistic 
Development and Jadiicatio% p. 226 and 
foil.), and there is no reason to suppose 
that it does not anply to the readers of a 
foreign langua^ also. As long as words 
and constructions absorb some of our 
enersjt there is less attention available 
for the ideas expressed. 

* 'It is fatal to efficiency to be con- 
tinually introducing strange words without 



better preparation for rendering 
unprepared passages lies in copious 
reading. 

It is also the best preparation for 
the use of the foreign language in 
free or set composition. Much time 
is still being wasted in translating 
from English at a time when the 
knowledge of the foreign language 
is quite inadequate to prevent many 
and gross mistakes of grammar and 
idiom. 

The choice of texts is certainly 
not difficult for want of books. In 
recent years educational publishers 
have vied with each other in putting 
on the market cheap French texts ; 
and now that American publishers 
have turned their attention to us, 
we also have a very fair supply of 
German books. A mistake too often 
made is to select books that are too 
hard, owing to the large number 
of unfamiliar words. For the early 
part of the intermediate stage, we 
need carefully prepared texts. We 
are agreed that for the beginner 
the books have to be specially 
written ; it is less generally realised 
that, even a little later, hardly 
any foreign book written for 
foreign readers is directly suitable 
for the use of our pupils. Most 
texts require simplifying for this 
purpose. This may be regarded as 
sacrilege by some who have the 
scholar's aversion to any tampering 
with an author's text. If, however, 
the author consents, and the editor 

having the pupil react on any of them 
frequently enough to aoquire familiari^ 
witii them* (O'Shea, op. eiL, p. 218). 



THE MODERN LANGUAGE LEARNER'S VOCABULARY 243 



definitely states that certain changes 
have been made to render the book 
suitable for school use, there is no 
cause for complaint. Even if the 
author is dead, I still feel that in 
cutting out a provincial word, an 
archaic expression, or a difficult 
construction — say, from one of 
Hauff's tales — I am not laying 
wicked hands on what is funda- 
mental, and that if I could put the 
case to Hauff's shadow he would 
absolve me entirely, and rejoice 
with me that his tales are used in 
English schools. 

Apart from the books for n^id 
reading in class and in preparation 
time, there should be opportunities 
for private reading out of school ; 
and to this end the form library 
should contain, in addition to the 
English works of reference and 
works of fiction of which it usually 
consists, a certain number of French 
and German books — illustrated, if 
possible. Old volumes of boys' and 
girls' magazines, tales of travel 
and adventure, ' safe novels,' might 
all find a place on the shelves of 
the form library, and induce our 
pupils to read for their pleasure 
works in French and German. 

The suggestions I have made 
point to the need of more books in 
our schools, and this will entail ex- 
pense. Too often money is stinted 
on books, while it is given freely 
for scientific apparatus and maps. 
We must strive to convince educa- 
tional authorities that books and 
pictures are essential if we are to 
do our work well, and that we 
have a right to expect assistance 



in acquiring a good supply of both. 
Much might be done by co-operation. 
Schools within the same area might 
exchange sets of books ; indeed, it 
might be worth while to start a 
central office, to which books would 
be returned at the end of the term. 
If kept in suitable covers, renewed 
if necessary at the central office, 
such books should last at least two 
years, in the course of which they 
might have been used by six separate 
schools.* 

Half our difficulties will disappear 
if we make up our minds that to 
extend the vocabulary by means of 
various devices that insure a real 
knowledge of words, and, above all, 
by the cultivation of fluent reading, 
is our chief aim at the intermediate 
stage. The length of that stage 

* The system of transfer, from one school 
to another, of reading-books, maps, and 
other apparatus has several points in its 
fitvoor. It may result in a considerable 
saving of money. In Cumberland , for 
instance, the annual report tells us that 
it is hoped to save at least £500 a year 
in this way. But, educationallyalBO, the 
system has many advantages. The ques- 
tion of cost often prevents a teacher from 
requisitioning or from receiving the books 
he needs, because there are already in the 
school a number of books that must be 
made to do for another year's work. The 
scholars may know the books almost by 
heart ; they majr be mentally sick at the 
' sight of the familiar covers ; the svllabus 
of work may make another reader de- 
sirable ; but there the books are, and they 
must be used. In Cumberland it is now 
possible for the books not wanted to be 
returned to headquarters, where they are 
repaired and kept ready to be sent out 
again on demand or are destroyed, accord- 
ing to their condition. Nearly 40,000 
have been dealt with in this way during 
the last twelve months. The cost m 
parcels to and from the storeroom 
amounted to leas than £86 ; the cost of 
staff has not exceeded £100 a year. — 
Journal cf Bdveaiiam, December, 1908, 
p. 808. 

17 



244 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



may vaiy according to the age at 
which our pupilB leave school, but 
it should never be cut down too 
much. To have read fluently and 
intelligently a thousand pages of 
good French by the time the six- 
teenth year is ended seems to me 
no impossible requirement ; and 



I am sanguine enough to believe 
that before long it will be the 
rule, rather than the exception. 
The teacher who strives to attain 
this end will do good service to 
the cause of Modem Language 
teaching. 

Walter Rdppmann. 



FRENCH LESSONS AT AN EARLY AGE. 



Having often been asked how I 
start very young children with 
French, I thought it might perhaps 
be of some help to teachers who 
are going to have the same experi- 
ence if I were just to write down 
a few details of my work for the 
last few years in this direction. 

When French is started at as 
early an age as that of six, it is 
always rather difficult to get in 
enough of the language, and yet 
to keep the whole class bright and 
interested. The first few lessons 
present no difficulty; it is so de- 
lightful to start this new, wonder- 
ful language, French, spoken by 
numbers of other children in France, 
by big brothers and sisters who go 
to French Reunions, by crowds of 
people at the Franco-British Ex- 
hibition. All this and much more 
gives enthusiasm which will last 
for some weeks; there comes a 
time, though, when the interest 
begins to flag, when it is rather 
difficult to sit still and listen to 
words which must be learnt, and 
sounds which must be practised, 
before this much longed-for lan- 
guage can be spoken. This, it 



seems, then, is the moment for 
some special drill. 

Taking Form I., children of about 
six years old : every lesson begins 
with the day's greeting, given in 
chorus, and gradually, as progress 
is made, the date, time, and descrip- 
tion of the weather are added. 
While the children are still standing, 
a number of gjrmnastic exercises 
are gone through, bringing in the 
names of the parts of the body, 
the adverbs of place and directions 
in French, besides some verb drill, 
only one or two new words being 
added daily. 

Then follow breathing exercises, 
the directions always being given in 
French by either the whole clas^ 
one child alone, or myself. Finally, 
the emission of breath is voiced, 
the sounds a, (o), i, being uttered 
to the notes of a common chord — 



e.g. 



a (o) % 



^^ 



I often divide the class into three 
parts corresponding to these three 
notes, and then the children have 



FBENCH LESSONS AT AN EAEtLY AGE 



245 



to listen carefully to hear whether 
the chord is true (more often than 
not it is false ; but it is good practice, 
and makes them very keen about 
* pretty * sounds). As soon as they 
can do this well, they know, too, 
that they will be able to start 
learning French action songs and 
singing games. 

All this leads up quite naturally 
to the really serious part of these 
early French lessons — ^phonetics, or 
the practice of sounds. After 
repeating a number of these in 
order to get as much flexibility of 
lips and tongue as possible, I usually 
take one special one each week, 
write its symbol on the blackboard 
(in red, white, or green), explain 
the way it is to be produced, and 
then practise it with all sorts of 
other known sounds both before 
and after it. 

Here the real drill stops, and the 
lesson varies each day, sometimes 
at the suggestion of a child in the 
class, though more often to cover 
the scheme arranged for the week. 
The early days of the week are 
devoted to the learning of new 
words, songs, poems, actions, etc., 
and the last lesson to a repetition 
of the whole week's work, with a 
French game as a reward. On 
days when these very small French 



scholars are especially tired, a story 
about French people is very useful ; 
although it does not do much to 
advance the French vocabulary, it 
at least stimulates an interest in 
all that is French, and with a little 
subtle management several new 
French words can be introduced, 
and by association with some point 
of interest in the story, these are 
easily learnt and remembered. 

When the class is very fidgety, 
games and actions are pretty well 
certain to insure attention and the 
acquiring of some new words and 
sentences — such games as 'cache- 
cache,' 'attrapez la balle au bond,' 
*jeu de chiffres,' 'apportez-moi,' 
and plenty of others which can be 
made up, using very little more 
than the vocabulary already at the 
command of the class. 

There is really not more to add 
to an already rather long description 
of these simple lessons. French to 
these small people is merely prac- 
tising sounds which they do not 
make when they talk English, play- 
ing all sorts of new games, and 
talking about pictures in French, 
which is much more interesting 
than always doing it in English, 
provided there are not too many 
new things to learn. 

Edith C. Stent. 



CENTRAL WELSH BOARD EXAMINATIONS, 1908. 



We venture to believe that the aenior 
candidates taking paper 2b most have 
been somewhat startled when they read 
in the passage set for translation into 
French the following remarkable state- 
ment: 
* Paris is not so fine a plaoe as 700 



would expect. The palaoes and churohei, 
however, are very splendid and magnifi- 
cent ; and, what would please you, there 
are many very fine pictures ; hui Ida nd 
tkink iUir loay ^ lif$ eommodioui wr 



We knew that piotorss had long lives, 
17—2 



246 



MODERN LANOUAOE TEACHING 



but not that they can lead fast Uvea. 
Perhaps the aW.B. will tell ua in their 
next whether theee inoommodious pictorial 
frolics are peculiar to the Modem Babylon, 
or whether they also enliyen the austerity 
of our own National Oalleiy. If so. there 
can be little doubt that the institution 
will become a much more popular resort 
than it has been in the past. 

On the whole, the Senior and Junior 
papers are more satisfactory than the 
Honours papers previously reviewed. But 
the tendency to make the questions too 
difficult is still apparent, especially in the 
Senior Unprepared translation (2a). In 
both sets of papers the number of direct 
questions on the grammar Ib exceasiTe. 
The objection to these questions is that 
they are bad tests. Take, for example, 



the following: 'Otve the various rules 
relating to the use of taut (adverb). ' 

It would be quite possible for a candi- 
date to fail in this question, and yet in 
practice never make a mistake in the use 
of the adverb touL On the other hand, 
the fact that the candidate is able to 
answer the question does not prove that 
he is capable of applying it It is poosible 
to be a grammarian without being a 
linguist, and the object of the O.WJB. 
appears to be to turn out the former. 

One must, however, in fairness add that 
the Board permits the schools to take 
alternative papers, based upon reform 
method texts. The intention is excellent, 
but in practice some of the questions set 
remain of the old type — turned into 
French. X. 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION. 



Ths ordinary monthly meeting of the 
Executive Committee was held at the 
College of Preceptors on Saturday, Kov^n- 
ber28. 

Present: Messrs. Somerville (chair), 
Allpress. Von Glehn, Milner-Barry, Pol- 
lard, Rippmann, Kiss Shearson, Mr. 
Twentyman, and the Hon. Secretary. 

Letters expressing regret for inability 
to attend were read from Miss Batchelor, 
Professor Fiedler, Mr. Hutton, Mr. Eirk- 
man, and Mr. Payen-Payne. 

The minutes of the last meeting were 
read and confirmed. The prognunme of 
the annual general meeting was considered 
and passed. 

A report was presented by the Member- 
ship and Propaganda Sub - Committee 
making a number of suggestions for in- 
creasing the membership of the Associa- 
tion. It was agreed — (1) that a new 
circular of the objects and work of the 
Association should be drawn up ; (2) that 
the list of local secretaries should be 
revised and enlarged ; (3) tliat a list of 
schools and Modem Language teachers 
in selected areas should be drawn up with 
a view to a systematic canvass. 



It was alK> resolved, on the recommen- 
dation of the same Sub-conmiittee, that 
the report on the conditions of Modem 
Language teaching should be sent to the 
chairmen of local education committees, 
Members of Parliament interested in educa- 
tion, and to the local secretaries of the 
Association. 

It was further agreed that the same 
Sub-committee should be asked to con- 
sider how the Association can be made 
more attractive to teachers, and that Mr. 
H. L. Button, Mr. A. M. SaviUe, and 
Mr. S. A. Richards should be added to 
the Sub-committee. 

The following three new members were 
elected: 

C. H. Clarke, Ph.D., OampbeU College, 
Belfast. 

Miss E. M. E. Murphy. B.A., Highbury 
and Islington High School, K. 

Biiss 6. M. Storr-Best, Tadcaster 
Grammar SchooL 



Mr. von Glehn's lectures on the Teach- 
ing of French will be given at University 
College, Gower Street, W.C, at the hour 
of 10.80 a.m. on Tuesday, Janoaiy 5, and 



MODERN LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION 



247 



the four following dAjs. Each lecture 
will last an hour and aquarter, some portion 
of which will be given to discussion. The 
price of tickets, as already announced, will 
be Ss. 6d. for members of the Association 
and 7s. 6d. for others. We need hardly 
say that Mr. von Olehn is one of the fore- 
most and most practical exponents of 
modem methods of language teaching, 
and that those who attend his lectures are 
likely to hear much that will be useful to 
them in their daily work. 



An agreeable feature of the Oxford 
meeting will be an address by M. Gustavo 
Lanson, Docteur ^ Lettres, Professeur k 
la Faculty des Lettres k llJniversit^ de 
Paris. The subject M. Lanson has chosen 
is, * Ck>mment Voltaire a fait see lettres 
anglaises.' The Professor is well known 
to students of French in this country as 
the author of an HiOoire de la LiiUraittre 
franfaise, which has taken a very high 
place amongst such works. Not so many 
people, perhaps, know that he is regarded 
in France as the greatest living authority 
on Voltaire, and that it is understood that 
he has in the press a critical edition of the 
Lettres anglaUss, It is not often that 
members of the Association get a chance 
of hearing a French Professor of such dis- 
tinction speaking on his own subject, and 
on a portion of that subject which is pecu- 
liarly interesting to Englishmen. 

A successful meeting was held at Ipswich 
on Saturday, November 14, the arrange- 
ments for which were made by the local 
branch of the Teachers' Guild. The 
lecture-room in the Museum was well 
filled, many people coming from places at 
a considerable distance. The chair was 
taken by Mr. A. K. Watson, Head-master 
of Ipswich Grammar School. An address 
on the Beform movement in Modem Lan- 
guage teaching was given by Mr. G. F. 
Bridge, and a discussion followed, in the 
course of which the pictures used for 
teaching purposes were severely criticized 
on account of their lack of artistic merit. 
The Travelling Exhibition was on view for 
several days before and after the meeting. 



ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING, 

JANUARY 11, 12, & 13, 1909, 

AT OXFORD. 

PROGRAMME OF THE ANNUAL 
GENERAL MEETING AT OXFORD. 

Monday, Januaiy 11 : 9-11 p.nL, Conver- 
sarione, Ohrist Ohurch Hall (evening dress 
optional). Tuesday, Januaiy 12 : 9. 45 a. m. , 
General Oommittee meeting ; 10.80 a.nL, 
Address of Welcome by the Yice-Ohan- 
oellor ; General Meeting atthe Examination 
Schools ; Report of General Committee ; 
reports of editors of publications ; Hon. 
Tbreasurer's report; resolution by Hon. 
Treasurer: 'That the life - membership 
subscription be in future £5 5s.' Discus- 
sion, * How the Association may be made 
more useful to its Members' ; opener, Miss 
Matthews. Mr. Milner-Barry will move : 
' That this Association welcomes the recent 
change in the Board of Education regula- 
tions for Secondary Schools, which allows 
greater freedom to schools in the choice of 
languages to be taught, and hopes that 
the Board will take farther steps to encour- 
age the study of German in Secondary 
Schools.' 12 noon. Presidential Address, 
Right Hon. Lord Fitzmaurioe; 8 p.nL, 
address by Professor Lanson (University 
of Paris) on 'Comment Voltaire a fait ses 
Lettres anglaises ' ; 4 p.m., tea ; 4.80 p.m., 
address (in German) by Professor Fiedler, 
(University of Oxford) ; 7.45 p.m.. Annual 
Dinner in Magdalen College Hall. Wed- 
nesday, January 18 : 10.80 a.m., Mr. 0. 
Siepmann (Clifton College), ' Some Aspects 
of German Education,' to be followed, if 
time permits, by a discussion ; 11.80 a.m., 
discussion [on * The Teaching of French 
and German to Middle and Higher Forms/ 
opened by Mr. von Glehn (Perse School, 
Cambridge), Miss V. Partington (Queen's 
CoUege School), Rev. H. J. Chaytor (Ply- 
mouth College); 8.80 p.m«, address by 
Mr. H. A. L. Fisher (New College, Oxford) 
on 'Word, Thought, and Fact* 

The Modem Language Travelling Exhi- 
bition will be on view. The meetings will 
be held at the Examination Schools, High 
Street A reading and writing room for 



848 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



the hm of members will be prorided at 
the TaylorUn Inititution. 

Application for tickets for both reception 
and dinner must be made to the Hon. 
Secretary (Mr. G. F. Bridge), 45, Soath 
Hill Park, Hampstead. K.W.. before 
January 4. Earlier application will facili- 
tate the arrangements. Dinner tickets are 
6s. eaeh (wine not indnded). 



Besidenoe at Somenrille College is offered 
to ladiesat a charge of 9s. for the two days. 
Those who wish to take adTsntage of this 
offer are requested to write to the Prindpal 
before Jannaiy 1. 

Besidenoe at Worcester Oollege is offered 
to gentlemen at a charge of lis. for the two 
days (dinners not indnded). Application 
shonld be made to the Hon. Secretary. 



THE TEACHERS' GUILD MODERN LANGUAGES 
HOLIDAY COURSES, 1908. 



The total attendance at these courses 
was 112 — viz., at Tours, 24 ; at Honfleur, 
56 : at Neuwied, 26 ; and at Santander, 6. 
This was a somewhat smaller total than in 
1907, owing to a oonsiderable reduction of 
entries at Tours and Neuwied, not entirdy 
oonnterbalanoed by the increased numbers 
at Honfleur and Santander. Of the sta- 
dents, 44 were men and 68 women. 

ThiB was the first year of granting of 
Certificates of Profidency on examination 
by the Teachers' Guild. Hitherto the 



certificates have been given by the local 
teachers on their own responubility. 
When the Guild undertook the granting 
of oertifioate% it arranged for the setting 
of papers by an independent examiner, 
and for the conduct of the oral examination 
by the local teachers with its own repre- 
sentatives acting as assessors. 

Bdow are given the particulars of the 
results of the Certificate Examinations. 

K.B.— There were three classes and 
three divisions in each class. 



0«Dtr«.' 



Tours 



Honfleur 



Neuwied 



Number of Candidates. 



Five — Three written, 
five oral 



Two — One written, 
two oral. 



Number of Certifioatea. 



Twenty-five— Twelve 
written, twenty-five ; q"^ 
oral ' 





Written. 




OraL 


One 
Two 


I. 
... II. 


2 

1 


One 

Two . 
Two ., 


I. 8 
. IL 1 
. III. 1 


Two 


... I. 


8 


Two . 


I. 2 


Two 


... II. 


2 


Five .. 


I. 8 


One 


... II. 


2 


Five ., 


. II. 1 


One 


... II. 


8 


One 


II. 2 


One 


... III. 


1 


Six 


. III. 1 


One 


... III. 


2 


Three . 


. III. 8 


One 


... III. 


8 


Threen 


ot classed 


Three not dassed 






One 


I. 


1 


One 
Onem 


I. 1 
>t classed 



The Courses will be repeated in the 
same four centres in August, 1909. A 
new Course, which will be of a specially 
practical and commercial character, will 
also be started at Lubeck, under the 



local guidance of Dr. Sebald Schwan, 
Director of the Bealschule. Mr. T. R. 
Dawes, M.A., Head-master of Castleford 
Secondary School, Torks, will be the 
representative of the English Oommittee. 



SCHOLARS' INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE 249 



THE SCHOLARS' INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENCE, 



Reports from the three countries 
chiefly concerned show how valuable 
is the exchange of letters. The 
chief points to keep in mind are — 
that the interest of the scholar 
depends upon the interest of the 
teacher; that to insure correspon- 
dents in the first instance the 
teacher should be careful to send 
only the name of one pupil to each 
school ; and that to insure a reply 
in the most economical fashion a 
foreign reply-postcard (2d.) serves 
very well for the preliminary appli- 
cation. The plan of one letter in 
their own and a foreign language 
alternately is also advisable. Letters 
mustj of course, be regular, and the 
correspondent's mistakes carefully 
corrected. 

LIST OF FOREIGN TEACHERS WHO 
APPROVE OF THE EXCHANGE 
OF LETTERS. 

Fbsnch. 
Pro/esior$ in Boys* Schools. 

M. Andreii, Lyc^ National, Amiens. 

M. Angl^ • Beranger, College de 
Treignao, Oorr^ze. 

M. Anyray, Lyo^ de St. Brieno, C6te8 
dn Nord. 

M. Bastide, Lyo^ Charlemagne, Rae 
St Antoine, Paris. 

M. Bazennerie, CoU^ daCoulommiera, 
Seine-et-Mame. 

M. Beltette, Lyo^ et k I'JIJkwle Primain 
Sap^rienre de Tonrcoing, Nord. 

M. Bi^ Coll^ de Maiamet, Tun. 

M. Blancheton, 58, Avenne Victor Hugo, 
Tolle, Corrdze. 

M. Bonafoos, Petit S^minaire de Lavaur, 
Tarn. 

M. Bonnal, ColUge de Hilkn, ATeynnu 



M. (Bonnet, Lyo^ de Rennea, lUe-et* 
Vilane. 

M. Baaile Bonttes, Lyo^ de Garret, 
Crenx. 

M. Camerlynck, 27, Avenne dn Bel- 
Air, Paris. 

M. Caralp, Coll&ge de Ajaocio, Corsica. 

H. Chambonnand, 84, Bonlevard 
Richard-Lenoir, Paris. 

M. Clausse, CoU^ d'Anzonne, Cdte 
d'Or. 

M. G. Commandenr, College de Mont4- 
limar, Drdme. 

M. M. Commandenr, 81, Bonlevard Jean 
d'Aro, Soissons, Aisne. 

M. G. Copperie. College de Calais, Pas- 
de-Calais. 

M. CoiBcard, College de Dnnkerqne, 
Nord. 

M. L. DarrinUt. Lyo^ de Tonlon. 

M. Degr6, College de Langres, Hte. 
Mame. 

M. Devanz, Coll^ de Vire, Calvados. 

M. Divry, Institnt St. Lonis, Perpignan, 
Fyrteta Orientales. 

M. Drien, Lyo^ de Gap, Hantes-Alpes. 

H. Dnplenne, College de Cholet, Maine- 
et-Loire. 

M. Dnpr^, Lyc^ Montaigne, Rne 
Angnste-Comte, Paris. 

M. Feignonx, Lyc^ de Caen, Calvados. 

M. Feytel, licole Normale, Bonneville, 
Hte. Savoie. 

M. France, College de Beanne, Cdte 
d'Or. 

M. Gabriel, OoU^ de Lnneville, 
Menrthe et Moselle. 

M. Gandner, Coll^ d'Amay-le-Dno, 
Cdte d'Or. 

M. Gasoard, Lyc^ de Montpellier, 
Heranlt. 

M. Gomband, Coll^ de Melle, Denz- 
S^vree. 

M. Crept, CoU^ de Conlommiera, 
Seine-et-Mame. 

M. Gnillet, ^le Primaire Snpdrienre 
de Chantonnay, Vend^ 

M. Helias, 29, Avenue St. George, 
Anzerre. 



260 



MODEBN LANGUAOE TEACHING 



M. Jftnin, OolUge de Villefiranolie-siur- 
Saone, Rhdne. 

M. Jabien. Lyo^ de Kiort, Deax- 
S^yres. 

M. Koenig, OoUkg© de VitryleFnui^di, 
Mame. 

M. Lftgarde, Ooll^ d'Slbceaf, Seine 
Inf(&rieiire. 

M. H. Lagude, Ooll^ d'Aoxerre, 
Yonne. 

M. LaniiAj, "ioole Nonnale d'lnstita- 
teun, Donai, Kord. 

M. Le Deaert, OoU^ de Biom, Pay-de- 
Ddme. 

M. Le Bonge, GoU^ de Morlaiz, Mor- 



M. Mafie, Lyo6e de Tonlooae, Hte. 
Garonne. 

M. Marohand, OolUge 6» Lnxeoil, 
Hante-Saone. 

M. Martin, Lyo^ de Toomon, Ardtehe. 

M. MieUle, Lyo^ de Tarbea, Hte. 
Fyr^ta. 

M. Moori^, licole lihre de La Trinity 
B^ers, Heraolt. 

M. Nida. Lyote de Troyes, Anbe. 

M. Obry, Lyo& du Havre, Seine 
Inf^enre. 

M. Odru, Lyo^ de Pay, Hte. Loire. 

M. O'Dempeey, 7, Rue Doguay Trooin, 
St. Brieno, Gdtee dn KonL 

H. Palmer, licole ProfesBionelle, 
Yierzon. 

M. Peignier, Lyo4e de Bordeaox, 
Oironde. 

M. Pradel, Lyo^ de Montla9on, Allier. 

M. QaenooiUe, Coll^ de Graaee, Alpes 
Maritimes. 

M. Beynaud, 46, Boulevard de la Oroix 
Bouge, Lyon. 

M. Bouasel, Lyc^ de Yenddme, Loir- 
et-Cher. 

M. Boy, Lyo^ de Ohftteaudun, Eore-et- 
Loire. 

M. Sabardu, Coll^ de Draguinan, Yar. 

M. Salvan, CJoU^e St Jean d'Angely, 
Oharente Inf. 

M. Seohereaee, College de Bergerao, 
Dordogne. 

M. Thoumazoun, Petit Seminaire de 
Brive, Corr^ze. 



M. Tdnzain, Lyo^ d'AngoolSme, 
Oharente. 

M. Tnrgol, ^eole primaire sup. de 
Gar^ona, Carentan. 

M. Yalentin, OolUge de Soiaeona, Aiane. 

M. Yayron, Oolttge de Vannee, Mor- 
Mhan. 

M. Yoillet, OoU^ Monge k Beaune, 
06te d'Or. 

M. Wirth, Lyo^ Fontanee, Niort, Deux 
S^yrea. 

Teaehen in OirW Schools, 

Idle Abrey, Ooll^ Fdnelon, Lille, 
Kord. 

Mile Bellon, Lyc^ de Jeunee Fillea, 
Montpellier, H^ranlt. 

M. Beltette, I'lnititut S^vign^ Bue dee 
Orphelinee, Tourooing, Kord. 

Mile Ooblenoe, ^le Kormale d'ln- 
stitutrioes. M^lun, Seine-et-Mame. 

Mile Oruvellie, ColMge de Jeunee Fillee, 
Briers, H^rault. 

Mile Oroe, Lyo^ de Jeunee FiUea, 
Orleans, Loiret 

MUe Dubois, Institution de Jeunee 
Fillea, 6, Bue du Sud, Dunkerque, Nord. 

MUe Duasot, Lyo^ de Lons-le-Saunier, 
Jura. 

Mile DouBset, OoU^ de Troyea. Aube. 

MUe Erhard, ^oole Sup^eure de 
Jeunee FiUee, Tours. 

MUe Francis, 51, Bue de la Barre, 
Alen^n. 

MUe FayoUe, ^le SupMeure, Saint 
Ohamond, Loire. 

MUe Fischer, OoU^ge de Jeunes FiUea, 
Chalon-sur-Saone, Saone-et-Loire. 

Mme Yeuve Fran^ais, OoU^ de Jeune 
FUles, Oonstantine, Algeria, Africa. 

MUe GUard, Lyc^ de Jeunee FiUes. 
MarseiUee. 

MUe Goisey, Ooll^ de Jeunes Fillee, 
La F&re, Aiane. 

MUe Guerin, 6, Bue de Lagny, Mon- 
treuU-sous-Bois, Seine. 

Mme Hava, OoUdge de Jeunee FiUee, 
Bochefort, Oharente Infi&rieure. 

MUe MardUe, Lyo^ de Jeunee FiUes, 
Aix en Provence. 

Mme MieiUe, OoU^ de Jeunes FiUes, 
Tarbes, Hte. Pyr^^. 



SCHOLAKS' INTERNATIONAL COBEESPONDENOE 261 



Mme Ncnon-Ooblenoe, licole Normale 
d'Institatrioes, Melon, Seme-et-Marne. 

Mile Peroheranoier, CoUdge de Jennes 
Filles de Cliartres, Eore-et-Loire. 

Mile Biye, Lyc^ de Jeunes Filles, Mont- 
pellier, Heraolt. 

Mile Tnrgot, L'l^le Commnnale de 
JeoneK Filles de Carentan, Manche. 

Mlli Valentin, Coll^ de Coun. 

Mile y idal, Lyo^ de Jeunes Filles, Nice. 

BSLGITJM. 

Mile Frangois, Rue de La Blanohiaserie, 
Brnssels. 

Bfme Yassenr, 16, Rue da Remoiqnenr, 
Brnssels. 

Mme Rachwall, 22, Rue Philippe-Oham- 
pagne, Brnssels. 

QlRMANT. 

Teachara vihjo like to hear direct, 

Mr. W. £. Birkett, 12, Hohstrasse, 
Schweidnitz, Germany. 



Mr. J. Bolgar, 82, Hansaring, Koln am 
Rhein. 

Direktor Bowitz, Hohere Madchen- 
sohnle, Schweidnitz, Silesia. 

Franlein Gomelie Benndorf, Langegasse 
47, Vienna VIIL 

Fnkdein Eokardt, Stadtisohe hohere 
Madohensohnle, Bochnm, Westphalia. 

Professor G. Hoft, 19 Henriettenstrasse 
21<<, Hambmig. 

Dr. Jaeger, 91, Brahmsall^, Hamburg. 

Friialein H. Ludwich, Markische Strasse 
9, Boohum, Westphalia. 

Professor Nader, Waehringer Strasse 61, 
Vienna 9/2. 

Miss Webb, Helgolander Ufer 6, Berlin, 
N.W. 62. 

Professor Martin Hartmann, the organ- 
izer for Germany, prefers that lists should 
be sent direct to him. He requires the 
age of pupil, school standing, profession 
of parent, and 2^. with each name sent. 
His address is Fechnerstrasse 6, Gohlis, 
Leipzig. 



LA S0Crf5T]& AGADl&MIQUE, 



La Soci^t^ Acad^mique had % very great 
treat on Thursday, November 26, at the 
Eingsland Secondaiy School for Girls. 

The reunion was unique in several ways : 
it is the first time that this school has 
'entertained' the Society, and it is cer- 
tainly the first time the audience has ever 
been so large, there being about 800 people 
(mostly schoolgirls) in the pretty halL 
By kind permission of the head -mistress, 
and under the direction of the French 
mistress, a most enjoyable programme had 
been prepared. 

The younger and newer members were 
delighted to find how clearly and care- 
fully the performers spoke ; they seem to 
have been able to follow the whole of the 
bright little play, Le True de Roee^ by 



Henri Berthin, as weU as most of the story 
from Daudet, La ChJvre de Monsieur 
Seffuin^ so well remembered and recited by 
a little girL 

The beautifully rendered songs were new 
to everyone, and the members of the 
Society are very grateful to have learned 
of the existence of such a charming collec- 
tion . (Oontes en Musique pour les Enfants 
malins. Paroles de A. Baudeuf. Musique 
de Ad. Remy, 51 Rue Blanche, Paris.) 

The Society is glad to find that this 
newly affiliated school is fond, too, of 
songs, and looks forward to having a com- 
bined * French Concert' at no far-o£f date. 
E. 0. Stxnt, 

Viee-Preiident* 



352 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



REVIEWS. 



BrUith IndiMioMyfrom English Sources, 
far the Use of Schools. By Hugo 
Haobun. Stookholm : Albert Bonnier, 
1908. Pp. 128 and notes 15. Price 
2 kr. 25 (28. 6d.). 

The material included in this book has 
been taken chiefly from Wyatt's En^ish 
Oitizeii, Buckland's Our NatunuU Institu- 
tions, and Arnold Forster's Cfiiizen Reader. 
The Tolome is intended to serve as a text- 
book for higher classes, carrying pnpils 
ftirther in their stadyof British institu- 
tions than they can be taken in Kron*s 
LiUU London/sr, 

The notes are Kmited in amount, and 
deal only with really necessary matters. 
They include phonetic transcripts of 
words, especially names that are likely to 
cause difficulty to more advanced pupils. 
The explanations are in Swedish when 
dealing with the more difficult passages 
or subjects. The frontispieoe is in colour, 
but is not very well reproduced. There 
are forty-one illustrations in black and 
white, and a coloured double-page map 
of England and Wales. There is a good 
index, which will greatly add to the 
value of the book to students as a book 
of reference. 

The sources from which the text has 
been drawn indicate sufficiently the scope 
of the book. The compilation has been 
carried out most successfully. The book 
is eminently readable, even though in a 
few places more details are given, perhaps, 
than are necessary for the purposes of a 
foreigner. Would that more were done in 
our English schools to instruct our pupils 
in matters here set forth for Swedish pupils. 
In the course of compilation the matter 
has been brought up to date. We find 
the new Territorial Army, the recently 
instituted Court of Criminal Appeal, 
etc. 

We have noted very few misprints or 
other errors. On p. 16 the Speaker is 
said to wear a *whig.' On p. 45, for 



'County of the City of London' read 
'County of London.' On p. v there is 
' recommendod '; and on p. 188 there is a 
syllable omitted in the phonetic trannript 
of ' unconstitational '; p. 27, thetranaoript 
of Herefordshire shoiUd have only one 
' ft,' and that of Gloucestershire would be 
better with only one 'o.' In the same 
paragraph of notes 'reaipi' should be 
'rasiin.' to bring it into line with the 
transcript used. P. viii, 'As a kind of 
repetition' should be 'for purposes of 
revision,' or tome similar phrase. 

The book is manifestly the work of a 
•cholarly hand ; we hope it may receive 
from Swedish teachers and students of 
English the reo(^gnitio]i it merits. 

From Messrs. Hachette we have again 
received that wonderful budget of infor- 
mation, the Almamach Eachette, full of 
pictures, many of which tiie Modem Lan- 
guage reader will find uaeftil, while others 
will appeal to the teachers of Geography 
and History. The same publishers have 
sent us several books suitable for prizes 
and for form libraries. Foranost among 
these is the Excursions en France, by Henri 
BoUand, a volume in their BiUiotheque 
des icdes et des Families, It measures 
7 by 101^ inches, is well bound in doth, 
clearly printed on good paper, and illus- 
trated by seventy pictures of French 
scenery, some of them full-page. It is 
hardly credible that this fine book can be 
sold for 8 fr. 90 c., yet such is the case. 
Two new volumes in the well-known 
Biblioth^que Boss Illustr/e are Mile G. 
Du Planty's La Oousine OuduU^ with fifty 
illustrations by E. Zier, and Mme Ch^n 
de la Bruy^re's La Fie d^AujourdThui^ 
with forty illustrations by G. Dutriao. 
The price in each case is 8 fir. 60 c A 
very attractive volume is Ma Orande, by 
Paul Margueritte. excellently illustrated 
by Marold, price 6 francs. All these 
volumes are well bound. 



BEVIEWS 



25S 



Paucinet : LtUxmlaye. Edited hj F. W. 
Odoxbs, M.A. Pp. 44. ftioe 4d. 
(Second year.) Le M<mde oU Van ae bat. 
Edited by B.E.ALLPRX88.B.A. Pp.48. 
Price 4d. (Third year.) Un 6pUode 
$ou8 la Terreur: Balzac, Edited by 
C. F. Sheabson, M. a. Pp. 48. Price 4d. 
(Third year.) HitUnre Sun Merle Blame: 
Museet. Edited by A. P. Guiton, 
B.te-So. Pp. 48. Price 4d. (Fourth 
year.) 

A very welcome further instalment of 
Mr. Brigstoche's series of Dent's short 
French readers. To a school organized 
throughout on sound new-method lines, 
this series — the work of experienced 
teachers— is probably the most useful on 
the market. The plan is (1) a page or 
two of text, with brief French footnotes 
explaining any difficulties of vocabulary ; 
(2) exercises in French on the subject- 
matter of the section ; (3) drill in grammar 
and vocabulary suggested by the section. 
Except for Mr. Brigstocke's introduction 
to Balzac, which is in English, from cover 
to cover there is not a word that is not 
French. The subject-matter in every case 
is bright and well chosen. The ' exercises ' 
are fullest in the Balzac ; class experience 
shows that this will, accordingly, be pro- 
bably the most useful. The low price of 
the series, considering the excellent stuff 
in each book, is wellnigh incredible. 

MethuevCs Simplified French Texts. Price 

Is. each. 
Bemy le Chevrier. Adapted from Souvestre 

by E. Chottin, B. fes-L. Pp. 92 (text 6C, 

vocabulary 24). 
La Bataille de Waterloo. Adapted from 

Erckmann-Chatrian by G. U. Evans, 

M.A. Pp. 95 (text 66, vocabulary 19). 
Jean Valjean : V. Euao. Adapted fh>m 

Lea Mieirablcs by F. Draper, B.A. 

Pp. 95 (text 56. vocabulary 23). 
La Bouillie au Afiel. Adapted from 

Dumas by P. B. Inoham, B. A. Pp. 94 

(text 55, vocabulary 31). 
Pierre et Camille. Adapted from Mussat 

by J. B. Patterson, M.A. Pp. 94 

(text 57, vocabulary 29). 

The aim of the series is ' to supply for 
young pupils who have been learning the 
language for about two or three years a 
simple translation book which they can 



understand, and which will at the same 
time provide a complete story. ... It 
has been thought advisable to take a well- 
known story, and re-tell it for the most 
part in easy French.' 

The books are clearly printed on good 
paper, and well bound. They probably 
ftilfil their aim, which does not seem a 
very high one. For classes accustomed to 
rapid reading the price is somewhat pro- 
hibitive. 



Arnold. Price 



is. 8cL 



Eight short scenes suitable for very 
small children to act. Bather slight. If 
{n phonetic script, would be very useful 
for forms just above the kindergarten. 
The vocabulary (ten pages) should be 
superfluous. 

The Alphonse Daudet Beading Book. By 
Jbtta S. Wolff. Pp. vi + 134. Fourteen 
extracts from the 'Lettres de Mon 
Moulin,' 'Oontes du Lundi,' etc 

Well chosen for rapid reading. The 
addition of a good questionnaire would 
make this a really valuable addition to 
the lilt of books available for the class- 
room. The notes (12 pages) are oom- 
mendably brief. 

La Jeunesee de Chateaubriand. Edited 
by Gerald Goodridos, B.A. Oxford 
Modem French Series, edited by L. 
DsLROS, M.A. 1907. Pp. xvi+255 

' (212 text, 43 notes). Price Ss. 

A lengthy extract from the ' Mtooires 
d'Outre-Tombe.* with an excellent intro- 
duction, adequate notes, and the paper 
and print which make the publications of 
the Oxtord Press a joy to handle. 

A Oerman Orammar for Schools and 
Colleges. By Francis Kinoslst Ball, 
Ph.D. Pp. xii+244. D. 0. Heath and 
Co. Price 2s. 6d. 

HeaJQCs Practical German Orammar. By 

E. S. JoTNEB, M.A., LL.D., and £. C. 

Wessilhoeft, M.A. Pp. vii+397. 

D. 0. Heath and Go. Price 3s. 6d. 

It ii taking publishers and writers a 
long time to realise that certain old- 
CMhioned methods of language teaching 



254 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



•n doomed. The two books before m 
might have been written twen^ yeen ago 
or more, for all aocoont they take of the 
advance that has been made in language 
teaching in the meantime. 

Dr. Ball's book is made according to a 
well-known recipe. Three pages at the 
beginning are devoted to the pronunciation 
of the language ; then, up to p. 187, we 
have English sentences for translation 
into German, and German sentences for 
translation into English; pp. 188-140. 
the German script; pp. 141-208. *Some 
Essentials of English and German Gram- 
mar '; p. 204, Grimm's Law ; lastly, p. 205 
to the end is taken up with the Vocabulary 
and the Index. 

In the section devoted to pronunciation 
the author relies on English examples 
(f.^., Granada, chromo) to teach the 
German vowel-sounds of words like Mainn, 
OoU. We are told, amongst other things, 
that '^ at the end of a syllable sc^' and 
that the C at the beginning of Cdsar is 
pironouDced like K, 

As for the sentences for translation, we 
cannot do better than give the reader some 
examples of them : 

'Father is in the garden with coffee, 
bread and cheese.' ' The hands and feet 
of this son are very smalL' ' Mornings 
they walk in my neighbour's forest. ' * The 
women of the valley are beautiful, and are 
the queens of the earth.' 'And the men 
of the valley have the hearts of a lion.' 
'When we go to Switzerland, we shall 
make little journeys into pretty villages.' 
*How is the coffee, father? Is it hotf 
Yes, it is hot ; but is that milk not sour ?' 
' It is sweet, but warm ; the milk in that 
carriage ia sweet and cold.* ' I hear some- 
thing; do you hear nothing. Doctor 
Smith V * Yes, you hear the fire and the 
wind. ' ' There sits Charles in the garden.' 
' I am a simpleton ! I have bought only 
two kinds of coffee.' ' It pleased us very 
much that he was there.' 

The author believes, moreover, in help- 
ing the pupil to translate these sentences ; 
and it must be admitted that when he 



sets about explaining a difBcolty, he does 
it with a vengeance. For example : 

'How is the summer? Is it (er, der 
SammeTf masculine) cool ?' 

The German sentences are not any 
better than the Englirfi ones : 

' Er ist nicht zu Hause, er kommt nicht 
bis morgen abend.' ' Aber bis heute hatte 
ich ihn nie geschen.' ' Gestem wanderten 
ich und Anna in jenen Garten ; aber der 
Bettler war nicht mit der Borse da. ' ' Hier 
sind Brot, Ease und Kaffee; es freut 
mich sehr dass sie hier sind.' 'Er ist 
jetzt nach Hause geeilt, weil wir morgen 
cu ihm gehen. ' ' Und wie kalt dies Wasser 
istr 

For our part, we have no confidence 
whatever in this method of teaching a 
living language. Indeed, the author 
himself has evidently not much confidence 
in its possibilities either, for even as far 
on as p. 125 we find that the learner is 
not yet supposed to be fitmiliar with the 
German for 'what,' as appears from the 
following sentence : 

' See what {vftu) your brother has found 
because he rises early.' 

After the learner has been regaled 
through several pages with sentences of 
this type, we are amazed to see him 
plunged without warning (p. 204) into the 
middle of the science of comparative 
grammar. The page referred to is devoted 
to an exposition of Grimm's Law ; and we 
don't know whether to be more astonished 
at the attempt to expound Grimm's Law 
in one page, or at the attempt to teach it 
to a pupU, who, as far as this book is 
concerned at least, is still supposed to be 
ignorant even of the elements of phonetics. 
Is it not a fact that University students, 
even at the present day, very ofben &il to 
arrive at an intelligent oomprehension 
of the facts of comparative grammar, 
because they lack this very training ? If 
the pupil were taught the elements of 
phonetics, he might then be able to grasp 
the meaning of Grimm's Law later on, if 
he should ever have occasion to learn it. 
But the attempt to impart such knowledge 



REVIEWS 



255 



in this crude fonn can result in nothing 
bat the acquirement of a certain amount 
of philological alang, which is worse than 
most kinds of slang, and a good deal more 
harmful. 

When one considers what people try 
to teach children, and how they try to 
teach it, it almost makes one despair of 
education ! 

The second of these volumes resembles 
the first in its general outline and in the 
method it pursues. Its sentences are 
more correct, and less irritating. Hdngen 
on p. 217, line 2, should be hangen. 

Easy Otrman Stories. By HxDWia Lkvi. 

Edited with Notes and Vocabulary by 

Mrs. LuisE DsLP. (Text, pp. 1-50; 

Notes, pp. 50-67 ; Vocabulary, pp. 6S>- 

98.) George Harrap and Go. Price 

ls.8d. 

The ten short stories that compose this 
little volume afford not unpleasant read- 
ing, though, if we were making out a 
course of reading for introducing young 
people to German literature, we are not 
sure that we should include them. 

With the manner iu which this book 
has been edited, however, we have no 
patience. In the first place, the notes are 
overdone, and the pupil is never given 
a chance of finding out anything for him- 
self. For example: 'Wo wohnst du 
dennf Wherever [Bid] do you live? * Gross 
und klein,' young and old ; ' Sie hangt sich 
ein Eorbchen an den Arm.' she hangs a 
basket on her ottti. In the second place, 
the English of these notes is often bad : 
• I would like a cup of tea ' (p. 51) ; • If 
we would take a pot of ivy * (p. 55) ; • Wa 
would like to have' (p. 55); 'All the 
commissions her aunt had given to her' 
(p. 63) ; ' Here was still a young calf to 
be stroked, there some fowls to be given 
a handful of com to ' (p. 63) ; 'For here 
is decided by test who is equal to the 
long journey.' fFtr, p. 52, line 21, should 
be %oie. 



A Second German Course for Science 
Students. By Professor H. G. Fiedler 
and F. £. Sandbaoh. Alexander 
Moring, Ltd. Pp. 75. Large 8vo. 
Price 2s. 6d. net 

The fifty-eight pages of text contain 
extracts from recent German scientific 
publications. They deal with Chemistry, 
Physical Chemistry, and Physics. The 
type is roman. The notes deal solely 
with grammatical points, or with transla- 
tions of technical phraseology. Following 
the notes are some useful 'Hints on the 
Use of the Dictionary,' no glossary being 
provided in this Second Course. Lastly, 
there is a summary of the new gram- 
matical points dealt with in the notes, 
and a table of German abbreviations that 
occur in the extracts. The text covers a 
considerable field, and consequently in- 
cludes a very considerable vocabulary of 
the terminology of the sciences in question. 
The notes are good, and give just what is 
required without any diffuseness, and the 
translations of phrases or terms are especi- 
ally commendable — ^not the least so be- 
cause they are in good English. The 
authors insist that ' a sound knowledge 
of German accidence is indispensable, in 
order that the student may know the 
possible forms under which he may have 
to look {i.e., in the dictionary) for the 
word he wishes to find.' This insistence 
is necessary, in view of the too common 
idea that there is some cheap and easy 
road to reading scientific works in a foreign 
language. 

We have failed to note any misprints. 
Piece 12, line 8: gedackte Ffeife merits, 
perhaps, more note than a mere transla- 
tion, as gedackt does not appear in most 
dictionaries. In No. 2 it might be worth 
adding in the notes the French words of 
which the capital initials are used for 
classing the thermometers tested. 

The book can be unreservedly recom- 
mended. 



256 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



•THESE SORT OF QUB8TION8/ 

YouB correspondent IL Jolet Pingonin 
it eennpHtemmU dinrntl on finding the 
above oonstniction in the Modsxh 
Lanoujiox Txachikg, and aake for an 
explanation. Though it may be diffioolt 
to give the explanation, he may with 
safety use the expression, as it is a regular 
idiom of the language. Purists who will 
object to ' It is me,' and require ' It is I,' 
or condemn * compared to ' and ' different 
to,' and will, except when they forget 
themselves, say 'compared with* and 



• different from,' can be heard using ' these 
sort of phrases.' It is perhaps possible 
that the use of ' sort of or ' kind of in 
such expressions as ' he was sort of cross,' 
' he kind of grinned/ has given * sort of, ' 
'kind of,' a sort of character of a set 
phrase even in such phrases as the one 
under discussion ; or that the use of it in 
those kind of expressions without any 
proper grammatical construction has led 
to a kind of analogous non-grammatical 
use in the phrase which puzzles M. Pin- 
gouin* 

Habold W. Atkinson. 



FROM HERE AND THERE, 



OuB educational contemporaries have 
helped in a very gratifying way to make 
known the letter on the neglect of German 
addressed to the President of the Board of 
Education. Several have reprinted the 
whole letter or the greater part of it ; and 
in some cases leading articles have also 
appeared in support of the views expressed 
in the letter. May the seed that has been 
thus widely scattered bear good fruit. 

% % % 
In this connexion we announce with 
particular pleasure that the German Am- 
bassador has accepted an invitation to be 
present at the dinner at Oxford on the 
occasion of our Annual Meeting. 

% % % 

We have been asked to inform the mem- 
bers of the Modem Language Association 
that the Annual Meeting of the Historical 
Association will be held at University 
College, London, on January 8 and 9, and 
that of the Geographical Association on 
January 6. 

% % % 

An excellent account of the last Annual 
General Meeting of the Association has 
appeared in the lUvue de V Instruction 
puhlique en Belgiqtie, from the pen of 
M. Lhoneux, the delegate of the Associa- 



tion Beige des Professeun des Langues 
Yivantes. The following criticism of the 
discussion on translation is not without 
interest — "Pour un auditeur stranger il 
apparaissait que la discussion restait 
diffuse, que le probl^me ^tait mal situ^, 
pen circonscrit et que chaque orateur s'en 
tenait trop k sa petite exp^ence per- 
sonnelle." 

% % % 

There will be a discussion on The Tead^ 
ing of Languages at the Korth of England 
Education Conference, at Manchester, on 
Thursday, January 7. Papers will be read 
by Professor Sonnensohein (of the Classical 
Association) and Mr. Hardress 0* Grady, 
and the discussion will be opened by 
Mr. W. G. Lipecomb, Mr. J. Mclnnes, 
and Mr. Q. F. Bridge. 

% % % 
BiBMmoHAM Uniybbsitt. — Dr. Ernest 
de Selincourt has been appointed Professor 
of English Language and Literature in 
succession to the late Professor Churton 
Collins. 

% % % 

Edinbuboh Univebbitt. — ^The Vaca- 
tion Courses were attended by 256 students, 
of whom 77 were Scottish, 28 English and 
Irish, 88 Gennan, and 49 French, the 



FROM HEEE AND THERE 



257 



remaining 14 being of BassiAn, Portngaese, 
Scandinavian and Italian nationality. Of 
the total number 133 were men and 123 
women, the great minority belonging to 
the teaching profession. The Oommittee 
deeply regret that the number of students 
of German is still so small. The ayerage 
attendance at the German classes was 
about 30. at the French 80. at the English 
classes 100 to 130. 

% % % 

Edikbuboh Univebsity.— The Edin- 
burgh University Endowment Association 
has given £1,500 to the Edinburgh Uni- 
versity Court, to be appropriated in equal 
proportions to the endowment of the pro- 
posed Chairs of French and German. 

1^ Tk % 

LiYSBPOOL Uniyibsitt.— The Coundl 
invite applications for the recently 
founded Gilmour Chair of Spanish. The 
salary is fixed at not less than £600 per 
annum. The successful candidate will be 
required to enter upon his duties at the 
commencement of the Autumn Term of the 
Session 1909-10. Applications, together 
with the names of not less than three 
persons to whom reference may be made, 
and (if the candidate so desires) twelve 
copies of testimonials should be in the 
luuids of the Registrar on or before 
February 15, 1909. Further particulars 
may be obtained from P. Hebblethwaite, 
M.A., Begistrar. 

Ik Ik % 

LiYXBPOOL Ukiyxbsitt.— Mr. Bernard 
Pares has been elected to the new Bowes 
Chair of Bussian History, Language and 
Literature. 

% Tk % 

London Univzbsitt, Bidfobd Col- 
UBGX.— The following classes of special 
interest to Modem Language Teachers 



have been arranged for the Lent Term. 
They are intended particularly for teachers 
in London secondary and elementary 
schools, and tickets of admission can be 
obtained from the executive officer of the 
Education Committee, London County 
Council Education offices, Victoria Em- 
bankment. W.O. Mr. P. C. Thomas, 
M. A., will lecture on the Historical Study 
of the English Language, on Saturdays at 
10.30 a.m., beginning January 16. Miss 
Kathleen Fitzgerald will lecture on the 
Teaching of German by the Direct Method, 
on Mondays at 6 p.m., beginning, Janu- 
ary 18. 

% % % 

OxjOBD, St. Hilda's Hall.— Miss 
Keeling has been appointed Tutor in 
English and Librarian. 

Tk :k ^ 

For the following figures which show 
the number of candidates taking the 
various sections of the haeealauHat we are 
indebted to the Journal (^EduecUion. 





Candi- 
dates. 


Faasea. 


Peroen. 
tageof 






Passes. 


1. Science and Modem 

Languages 
8. Latin and Modem 

Languages 

8. lAtinandGreek ... 
4. Latin and Science 


8S97 
80&8 
S88S 

27W 


1820 
1285 
1806 
1851 


43 
49 
46 

49 



These statistics show very clearly what 
is the trend of education in France. 

Tk % Ik 

M. BoTTBATJD will begin his tour by 
giving performances of L*Avare, Mile de 
la SeiglUre^ V Anglais id qu*on le parle, 
and Le Voyage de M, Perrichon at the 
Steinway Hall, London, on January 20, 
21» and 22. 



25» 



MODERN LANGUAGE TEACHING 



1 

.1 



GOOD ARTICLES. 



Journal op Education, December. 1903 : 
The Tyranny of School (Mabel A. Marsh) : 
Literature ' Courses ' and the Use of 
Books (Susan Cunnington). 

School Would, October, 1903 : Physi- 
cal Fitness as a Condition of the Aw'ard 
of a Schohirship (E. W. Majiles) ; Train- 
ing for Teaching (C. Mac^n-^^or, Miss 
C. P. Trcmain) ; Education under a Local 
Authority (R. Blair) ; Sciontifu- Method 
in the Study of Education (J. J. Findlay 
and P. Sandiford) ; Eziierimental Studies 
in Education (J. A. Green); Acquire- 
ment in Education (O. Archdall Reid) ; 
Psychology and Education (E. P. Culver- 
well) ; Educational Efficionoy (T. P. 
Gill); Useful Knowledge (L. C. Miall). 
KovomWr. 1908 : The Reorganization of 
Higher Education of Girls in Prussia (0. 
Siepmann) ; The Regulations for Secondary 
Schools, 1908-9 (J. W. Shukrr). Decem- 
ber. 190S : English Public Schools (E. L. 
Milner-lkirry). 

Educational Times. November, 1908 : 
The Teacher's Imperfections and How to 
Deal with them (J. Adams). Docem1>€r, 
1908: Genuan in the Schools; The Ex- 
perimental Study of Instruction (J. "W. 
Adamson). 

School, October, 1908: The Bluca- 
tioiial Outlook: A Grand £xi»erimcnt 



(H. E. Armstrong) ; Weak Spoti in our 
Public Schools (' Oedipus'). NoTemlMr. 
1908: Home Work and Yonng Boyi 
(S. C. Rowland) ; Some of the PrMtiiQil 
Uses of Modem Languages (G. Shepper- 
ton). December, 1908: Higher Sduoip 
tion for Girls in Pmssia (J. Drever). 

The A.M. a., November, 1908 : Seoond- 
aiy School Masters and the Civil Serrfioe 
(W. E. Cnw). 

Die Neitereic Speaohek, October, 
1908 : Wie ist der frerndspTBohliohfl 
Unterricht naturgemass umzogMtelten 
(B. Uhlomayr). 

Les Lakguxs MoDEBXEs, October, 
1908 : La Composition en Langne Atran- 
gire au Baccalaur^at (G. Camerlynok) ; 
Les Cours de Faibles (Ch. Clermoiit). 
November, 1908 : L'Enseignement da 
Langage (E. Bailly) ; L'lftprenve teita 
de Langue Vivante au Baccalanreat (E. 
Devin) ; Noe Anthologies AUemandee 
(A. Morel). 

BOLLETTIXO DI FiLOGIA MODKRKA. 

October, 1908: Difficoltk e periooli del 
metodo diretto (N. B. Morelli) ; Grand- 
ziige eines Programms der Phonetik (O. 
Panconcelli - Calzia). November, 1908 : 
L'inseguamento dei verbi irregoUri nel 
metodo diretto (G. Gulli). 



"Modern Language^ 
Teaching 

THF OFFICIAL ORGAN OF THE MODERN LANQUAOl 

ASSOCIATION 

EDlThD BY VVALTiiK KirPMANiJJ 

K. IL ALLrBfcSS, t. fl. KIRKMAN, MISS FDRDlg, .VND A. A. SOM£«Vll 



I 



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The Annual General Meetine* 

The Art of Trandlatfont By F. Slorr J 

Words or Pictures 7 Br J. Wettiini 

Adenotdd and Modern L^anguage TeachioB- 

By H. Hagelln^ 

Modem Language WorK in the We^l Ridiogt 

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Reporl on the CoodiilonA of Modem (Foreicn) LAnguss^ 
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The Poaitlon of German In English Schools* 

French Plays and Songs tn Schools. By F. M. Pardle. 

I The NejTl Step : A Pendant lo f he PIscusslons* 

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La Socl%t£ Academique. 

Modern Language Associallon. 

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IDiscusalon Colutnn : Methods of Public Examination and 
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I H. S. Bere»ford Webb). 

Straying : A Confe^aion. 

The Modern Language Teacher's Reference LibrarT 
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Gerotan Plays at the Royalty Theatre. 

Rerl* 

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H elation. Miss F. M. Purdie. 

Hdcusdioo Column : Methods of Public Ejcamlnallon and 
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llscussioo ColaraDT The Best Method of Public Esami 
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■ W* Rippmann, F. B. KirKman). 

Modern Lannuago Association^ 

Tho Neuphilologenlag at HanoTer. 

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ALLPKESS, fi B. KIRKMAN. MISS PDRDIB, AND A. A. SOMBRVILLK 



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e biudy of Gorman In Public Secondary Scboul^. 

odern Language Study In Scotland. 

An EjLperiment In Methods W. &. KlrKman. 

Sofne French Pictures. Lantern^Slldcs and Sonus. 

Miss Bessie H* A. Robson. 

French Women NoTelists of the Early Nineteenth 
Century. Miss Amy Sayle« 

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German Scientific Society* Oxford* 




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odern Language 
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WE OFFICIAL OROAN OF 1 MK MODERN LANOUAl 
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EDITED BY WALTER RIPPM 
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Modem Language Methods in India, Js D. Anderson. 

On EjKleoding the Modern Language [vearner*9 

Vocabulary* Walter Rippmann, 

French Le55ona at an Early Age. Mia^ Edith C. Stent. 

Central Welsh Board Examinations. 

Modern Language AsM)ciatlon« 

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